If you've read any Suzan-Lori Parks before, you may be expecting something quite different from Topdog/Underdog. As Parks's plays go, this is fairly solidly in the "realism" camp.
That said, let me suggest to you that Parks is up to some more-than-meets-the-eye tricks here.
For this post, think back to Fuchs's "Small Planet" essay that started the semester. Remember that bit about "theatrical mirrors" and how--at the time--I said not to worry about that too much? Well, in this play, you should note how Parks invokes elements of Abraham Lincoln's assassination by John Wilkes Booth. The characters' names should tip you off to that, as should the older brother's job (and the end of the play). This is what Fuchs means by a theatrical mirror: it's when a script "calls out" to another performance or event (in this case the Lincoln assassination). With a mirror, the call-out is so obvious that it makes itself significant.
The other mirrored performance here is of course the con game, three-card Monte, which Booth seeks to learn from Lincoln. (If you're not familiar with this game, you can familiarize yourself with it via Wikipedia).
My question: why are these two mirrors in the same play? What does the Lincoln assassination performance have to do with the card game? Remember, your answer should come not from any outside research about history or card games but from the script itself.
Take a guess and defend it.
JF
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