Topdog/Underdog

This is rated 5 out of 5 stars

‘[A] contemporary classic…piercingly intimate and alive.’
The Age

This is rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

‘It woos you with its wit and charm – in the writing and the star-making performances.’
ArtsHub

This is rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

‘The questions it poses will trouble you long after the final curtain.’
Australian Book Review

ABOUT THE SHOW

An iconic piece of contemporary writing that won the Pulitzer Prize, Suzan-Lori Parks’s vibrant, energetic and sincere work Topdog/Underdog follows two brothers as they wrestle with the realities of the American Dream.

Lincoln and Booth are hustling to make ends meet: Lincoln as a whiteface Abraham Lincoln impersonator and Booth as petty thief and wannabe card-game hustler. What unfolds reveals siblings that are haunted by their past, unsure of their future, and bonded by history, familiarity and mistrust.

Topdog/Underdog’s recent Broadway return saw it win a coveted Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play, and celebrated Parks as one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People.

Directed by Bert LaBonté and starring Damon Manns and Ras-Samuel, Topdog/Underdog deftly weaves between sharp, incisive comedy and tragedy, dealing a final hand that moves so fast, you’ve got no choice but to keep up.

Wheelchair Accessible
Hearing Assistance
Audio Described
Tactile Tour
Open Captioning
Closed Captioning

Performance Type	Performance Date(s)
Audio Described by Vision Australia	Saturday 14 September at 2pm Tuesday 17 September at 7pm
Tactile Tour at venue	Saturday 14 September at 2pm (Tactile tour commences at 1pm)
Open Captioning via screen	Saturday 21 September at 2pm
Closed Captioning via GoTheatrical App	Saturday 21 September at 2pm

Talks & Events

Forum Night

Stay after the show to join an enlightening conversation with the cast and creative team. Read more.

Monday 2 September

Programme

Want to learn more about the Topdog/Underdog? View our interactive, digital programme.

Content Warnings

This production contains coarse language, depictions of violence, mature themes, sexual references, pornographic materials, haze, gunshot and theatrical blood effects. For detailed information about the production’s content click here.

If this production raises concerns for you or anyone you know, support is available. Contact 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Men's Referral Service (1300 766 4901), Lifeline (131 114), Beyond Blue (1300 224 636). LGBTIQA+ communities can contact Rainbow Door (1800 723 367) and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can contact 13 YARN (13 92 76).

Attendance Information

To learn more about our health and safety measures before you attend the venue, click here.

Photography by Jo Duck
Production images by Sarah Walker

Damon Manns

Lincoln

Ras-Samuel

Booth

Suzan-Lori Parks

Writer

Bert LaBonté

Director

Sophie Woodward

Set & Costume Designer

Rachel Lee

Lighting Designer

Dan West

Composer & Sound Designer

Lyndall Grant

Fight Choreographer

Laurence Boxhall

Card Consultant

Rachel Finley

Accent Coach

Matt Furlani

Voice & Text Coach

View All

Damon Manns

Lincoln

Topdog/Underdog is Damon’s Melbourne Theatre Company debut. His theatre credits include Fences, A Raisin in the Sun (Sydney Theatre Company); Othello, Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, War of The Roses (Sport For Jove); Two Hearts, The Rollling Stone (Outhouse Theatre Company); The Museum of Modern Love (Seymour Centre). On screen he has appeared in Thai Caves Rescue Series (Netflix), North Shore (Paramount), Home and Away (Seven Network) and feature films, The Osiris Child and Infini.

Current as of August 2024.

Ras-Samuel

Booth

Ras-Samuel is a dynamic stage and screen actor making his Melbourne Theatre Company debut. His notable stage credits include Because The Night (Malthouse Theatre); Happy End (Victorian Opera); In The Club (Theatre Works); Do Black Boys Go To Heaven (Mwangaza Theatre Company). On screen, Ras-Samuel's credits include Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes (Disney studios), Woody Woodpecker 2 (Netflix), and The Clearing (Disney+). He wrote, co-produced and starred in the short film BLVCK GOLD, which premiered at the St Kilda Film Festival, where he was nominated for Best Actor. He also directed A Good Boy. Ras-Samuel is dedicated to representation and inclusion, bringing diverse voices to the forefront. His commitment to excellence is evident in his carefully chosen roles and his pursuit of artistic growth, ensuring that each project he undertakes reflects a deep passion for his craft.

Current as of August 2024.

Suzan-Lori Parks

Writer

Suzan-Lori Parks is a multi-award-winning American writer and musician. She is the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Topdog/Underdog which recently enjoyed its twentieth anniversary Broadway revival and won the 2023 Tony Award. Other notable plays include Sally & Tom (2024), Plays for the Plague Year (Drama Desk Best Music, 2023) and Father Comes Home From the Wars (2014). Parks’s first marathon ‘diary play’ 365 Days/365 Plays — in which she wrote a play a day for an entire year—was produced at more than seven hundred theaters worldwide, creating one of the largest grassroots collaborations in theatre history. A MacArthur Genius Fellow, her novel Getting Mother's Body is published by Random House. She also writes extensively for the screen — most recently, as the showrunner/executive producer/head writer for the television show Genius: Aretha. She an alumna of New Dramatists and of Mount Holyoke College where she studied creative writing with James Baldwin, who encouraged Parks to begin writing for the theatre. In her spare time, Parks also writes songs and fronts her band Sula and The Joyful Noise.

Current as of August 2024.

Bert LaBonté

Director

Topdog/Underdog is Bert LaBonté’s directorial debut. As an actor, he has appeared in The Truth, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Lungs, Rupert, Birdland, The Mountaintop, Elling and others for Melbourne Theatre Company. Other theatre credits include Moulin Rouge! The Musical (Global Creatures); The Book of Mormon (Watchtower Productions); Helpmann Award winner An Officer and a Gentleman (Gordon Frost Organisation); Guys and Dolls (Ambassador Theatre Group); Fences, A Raisin in the Sun, All My Sons, The Grenade and Spelling Bee (Sydney Theatre Company); Cloudstreet, I am A Miracle, Time Share (Malthouse Theatre). Screen credits include Colin From Accounts, Erotic Stories, Five Bedrooms, Pieces of Her, Lie With Me, FISK, The Newsreader, Surviving Summer, More Than This, Jack Irish, Wentworth, Playing for Keeps, Upper Middle Bogan, Tomorrow When The War Began, Lowdown, Wilfred, The Let Down and Squinters. His film credits include Animal Kingdom and The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee.

Current as of August 2024.

Sophie Woodward

Set & Costume Designer

Sophie graduated with a Bachelor of Production (Design) from VCA in 2010, winning the Beleura John Tallis Design Award in her final year. Sophie recently designed costumes for Come Rain or Come Shine (Melbourne Theatre Company) and Death of a Salesman (GWB and Andrew Henry Presents). Recent set and costume designs include The Grinning Man (Salty Theatre); Romeo and Julie (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre);The Plan (and other plans) (HotHouse Theatre). Earlier design work includes Hungry Ghosts (Melbourne Theatre Company); Burn This, The One and Mr Burns, A Post Electric Play (fortyfivedownstairs); Unprecedented, All the Shining Lights, Between the Clouds, and Pyjama Girl (HotHouse Theatre); Monument, Selling Kabul, A Simple Act of Kindness, Fast Food, Iphigenia in Splott, Grace, and Extinction (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre). Sophie was Costume Design Associate on Girls & Boys, Bernhardt/Hamlet, An Ideal Husband and Twelfth Night (Melbourne Theatre Company), and Design Associate on A Christmas Carol and Groundhog Day (GWB).

Current as of August 2024.

Rachel Lee

Lighting Designer

Rachel is a lighting designer and artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. She works primarily with new writing and is the co-creator of MASHH (Mm And Something Happens Here), an award-winning theatre collective that has been creating and presenting works since 2017. Recent works include I Am Seaweed and《落叶归根》(Luò yè guī gēn) Getting (Melbourne Fringe Festival). Rachel’s design credits include I Wanna Be Yours, Laurinda and The Heartbreak Choir (Melbourne Theatre Company); Manifesto and Escalator (Stephanie Lake Company); Death of A Salesman (GWB Entertainment and Red Line); The Hate Race, Telethon Kid, Stay Woke and Hello, World! (Malthouse Theatre); Gender Euphoria (Mama Alto and Maude Davey); Peacemongers and Security (Darebin Speakeasy); Single Ladies and Ulster American (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre); Easy Riders (APHIDS) and various installation works across Flash Forward (City of Melbourne). She has been awarded the Green Room Award for Best Production.

Current as of August 2024.

Dan West

Composer & Sound Designer

Dan West is a musician, sound designer and community collaborator based in Naarm/Melbourne. Working on stages and in his custom designed shipping container studio, he creates sound work for installation, theatre and dance as well as for release. Dan has created soundtracks for video and performance artist Eugenia Lim, music and sound design for Butoh performer Yumi Umiumare, dancer Leisa Prowd and Maxine Beneba Clarke’s The Hate Race (Malthouse Theatre). He currently plays live electronics and guitar with Ai Yamamoto and indie pop chanteuse Georgia Fields while concurrently writing and touring with renowned instrumental Hammond Organ trio, Cookin’ On 3 Burners. Dan has performed across Australia, Europe and Asia at festivals including Falls Festival, Singapore International Arts Festival and Tokyo Jazz Festival and his music for installation and dance has been shown at venues including TATE Modern (UK), Noh Theatre (Japan), Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney) and MONA.

Current as of August 2024.

Lyndall Grant

Fight Choreographer

Lyndall Grant is a fight director, movement director, actor and motion capture specialist. She trained in acting at London’s ArtsEd School of Acting and then specialised in fight performance and movement. Lyndall is an accredited teacher with the British Academy of Dramatic Combat and a member of the Society of Australian Fight Directors. In 2013 she founded Captivate Action, which trains actors in stage/screen combat and motion capture. Lyndall was a guest instructor at the Paddy Crean International Stage Combat Workshop in Canada and teaches at the Victorian College of the Arts and 16th Street Actors Studio. Recent fight/movement credits include 37, My Sister Jill, A Very Jewish Christmas Carol, Is God Is, Sunday, As You Like It, Berlin, The Lifespan of a Fact, The Architect, Cosi, Torch the Place, The Lady in the Van, Astroman (Melbourne Theatre Company); The Picture of Dorian Gray (Michael Cassel Group); Beauty and the Beast (Disney Australia); Cruel Intentions the Musical (David Venn Enterprises); Groundhog Day, Death of A Salesman, An American in Paris (GWB); Nosferatu, Looking for Alibrandi, Atlantis, The Return, Because the Night and Cloudstreet (Malthouse Theatre).

Current as of August 2024.