A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity, winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Suzan-Lori Parks' play Topdog/Underdog tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future.

Topdog/Underdog was first performed at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, New York, in 2001. Its UK premiere was at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2003.

British premiere was at the Royal Court Mainstage in August 2003. Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

About the Author
Suzan-Lori Parks is a leading American playwright. Her numerous plays include Father Comes Home From the Wars (2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist), The Book of Grace, Topdog/Underdog (2002 Pulitzer Prize), In the Blood (2000 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Venus (1996 OBIE Award), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Fucking A, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (1990 OBIE Award for Best New American Play) and The America Play. Her work on The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess earned the production a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical in 2012. In 2007 her 365 Plays/365 Days was produced in more than seven hundred theatres worldwide, creating one of the largest grassroots collaborations in theatre history. Named one of TIME magazine's '100 Innovators for the Next New Wave', in 2002 Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog. She was the 2018 recipient of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award.

Reviews

'[The] speech is quick and rhythmically suprising. Parks' dialogue is funny and distinctive and black... a great play, well worthy of its Pulitzer Prize'

* Financial Times *

'A vibrant, gritty, lyrical play full of striking moments'

* The Times *

'Exhilarating, funny but also devastatingly sad, presenting a vivid microcosm of both family relationships and the black experience in America today'

* Telegraph *


Awards
Winner of Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002.



Book Information
ISBN 9781854597649
Author Suzan-Lori Parks
Format Paperback
Page Count 128
Imprint Nick Hern Books
Publisher Nick Hern Books