The Fierce Competition Between Brothers Continues
in Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks

by Robert W. McDowell

Ever since Cain and Abel, the competition between brothers has been fierce, whether it is for approval of a compassionate God or, in the case of Topdog/Underdog by African-American playwright and screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks, the attention of two feckless parents who have abandoned their sons with an inheritance of only $500 each, tightly wrapped in one of their mother’s stockings. That $1,000 is all that stands between them and a precarious hand-to-mouth existence on the mean streets of one of this nation’s largest cities.

The current PlayMakers Repertory Company presentation of this dark comedy, which won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is a real delight. Tyrone Mitchell Henderson and Brandon J. Dirden, who play a couple of battling brothers named Lincoln and Booth, not only bring both those oddball characters fully and completely to life, but also put a little extra pizzazz into their performances.

Like his namesake, Henderson’s Lincoln is a man of impressive wisdom and wit. Lincoln is the breadwinner, swallowing his pride and donning whiteface makeup to impersonate Old Abe in a local arcade.

Dirden’s Booth, also like his namesake, is a hothead and prone to violent outbursts against anyone and everyone who thwarts his fantastical plans of replenishing the brothers’ almost empty financial coffers by resuming their once-lucrative Three-Card Monte game and bilking unsuspecting marks of their hard-earned dollars.

The only problem is, Lincoln is the master of the Three-Card Monte scheme — but he doesn’t want to resume that particular hustle. Booth, on the other hand, cannot throw the cards like a pro. Indeed, he has two left hands and a jittery demeanor which, combined, mean that he has zero chance of convincing the crowd to bet on his game — or beating them when they do bet.

Director Raelle Myrick-Hodges helps Tyrone Henderson and Brandon J. Dirden polish their compelling characterizations of Lincoln and Booth until they gleam like precious gems. Her savvy staging extracts each and every humorous nugget in Suzan-Lori Parks’ hilarious offbeat script for Topdog/Underdog.

The exemplary acting and imaginative direction, combined with set designer Marion Williams’ gritty recreation of the brothers’ cramped and cluttered one-room apartment and the creative contributions of lighting designer Justin Townsend, costume designer Jan Chambers, properties mistress Cheralyn Lambeth, and sound designer Michèl Marrano, help make this PlayMakers Repertory Company production of Topdog/Underdog another big winner for the professional theater-in-residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The audience for the show’s Feb. 2nd matinee saluted this exceptional production with a spirited standing ovation which subsequent audiences will no doubt echo.

PlayMakers Repertory Company presents Topdog/Underdog Thursday, Feb. 7 and 21, at 8 p.m.; Friday, Feb. 8 and 22, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 9 and 23, at 2 p.m.; Tuesday, Feb. 12 and 26, at 8 p.m.; Wednesday, Feb. 13 and 27, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 16 and March 1, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Feb. 17 and March 2, at 2 p.m. in the Paul Green Theatre in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center for Dramatic Art, 120 Country Club Rd., Chapel Hill, North Carolina. $10-$32. 919/962-PLAY (7529) or http://www.playmakersrep.org/tickets/. Note 1: There will be free post-show discussions on Feb. 13th and March 2nd. Note 2: There will be an all-access performance at 8 p.m. on Feb. 26th, which will be audio-described by Arts Access, Inc. of Raleigh, NC (http://www.artsaccessinc.org/), and also features Braille playbills, large-print playbills, and a tactile tour (arranged in advance) for patrons with impaired vision. PlayMakers Repertory Company: http://www.playmakersrep.org/. Suzan-Lori Parks: http://www.barclayagency.com/parks.html. Internet Broadway Database: http://www.ibdb.com/show.asp?ID=10998. Stage on Screen: The Topdog Diaries (2002 TV Documentary, Directed by Oren Jacoby): http://imdb.com/title/tt0378800/.

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The Icy Fingers of Doubt Grip Four Hearts in Playwright John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning Parable

The icy fingers of doubt grip all four hearts in Doubt, A Parable, PlayMakers Repertory Company’s powerful production of playwright John Patrick Shanley’s thought-provoking four-character play about a compassionate young priest rightly or wrongly suspected of pedophilia. Now being performed in rotating repertory in Paul Green Theatre in the Center for Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Doubt features a crackerjack cast, under the sure-handed direction of Drew Barr.

Set in the Bronx in 1964, Doubt won the 2005 Tony Award® for Best Play and the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The current PlayMakers production of the play stars Julie Fishell as Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the gruff, no-nonsense principal of St. Anthony’s Catholic elementary school, and Jeffrey Blair Cornell as Father Brendan Flynn, a handsome and charming newcomer to the parish whom Sister Aloysius strongly suspects of having an inappropriate relationship with Donald Muller, a 12-year-old altar boy whom Father Flynn has befriended. Muller is the school’s first and only African-American student.

Sister Aloysius is unashamedly old-fashioned and a bit eccentric — indeed, at one point she denounces the replacement of fountain pens by ballpoint pens, because she believes that ballpoint pens make their users press down too hard and, somehow, pressing down too hard makes the students act like monkeys — and Father Flynn, who teaches physical education and religion in addition to his priestly duties, is a strong proponent of the liberal reforms in the Catholic Church that resulted from Vatican II (the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican), which commenced in 1962 under Pope John XXIII.

Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn were always on a collision course when it came to church doctrine. So, when there is a faint whiff of suspicion about his behavior toward Donald Muller, Sister Aloysius predictably smells a great, big rat.

Sister Aloysius has a mind of winter, and Julie Fishell not only does an admirable job of projecting that part of her prickly personality, but also keeping the crusty old nun credible and sympathetic, despite her obvious eccentricities and ultra-conservatism where church matters are concerned. Jeff Cornell likewise limns Father Flynn’s character in all its nuances. The priest is a terrific preacher and especially compassionate toward at-risk children, yet more than a little cocky and not at all shy about exercising his prerogatives, in the church hierarchy, over an upstart nun who persistently questions his motives and, ultimately, becomes his most implacable foe.

Also excellent are Janie Brookshire as Sister James, a brand-new eighth-grade teacher who senses something may be wrong in Father Flynn’s attentions toward Donald Muller, and Kathryn Hunter-Williams as Mrs. Muller, the mother of the boy with whom Father Flynn may have formed an unnatural attachment. Brookshire’s Sister James is sweet and sensitive and more than a little innocent about the vicissitudes of life, but Hunter-Williams’ Mrs. Muller is worldly wise and tough as a nickel steak.

Dramatist John Patrick Shanley’s timely parable about the corrosive effects of suspicion on the soul — and the damage done when suspicious minds violate the Sixth Commandment (“Thou shall not kill”) and destroy a person’s reputation with gossip — is superbly staged by director Drew Barr on a striking set by scenic designer Marion Williams, who brilliantly evokes the Gothic ambience of St. Anthony’s Church in recreating Sister Aloysius’ Spartan office, the school gymnasium, the church garden, and the church altar. Lighting designer Justin Townsend, costume designer Jan Chambers, properties mistress Cheralyn Lambeth, vocal coach Bonnie Raphael, and sound designer Michèl Marrano also do their parts to help gin up and sustain the suspense that makes Doubt such a must-see drama and, no doubt, the subject of more than a few sermons in the weeks to come.

PlayMakers Repertory Company presents Doubt, A Parable Tuesday, Feb. 5 and 19, at 8 p.m.; Wednesday, Feb. 6 and 20, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 9 and 23, at 8 p.m.; Sunday, Feb. 10 and 24, at 2 p.m.; Thursday, Feb. 14 and 28, at 8 p.m.; Friday, Feb. 15 and 29, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 16, at 2 p.m.; in the Paul Green Theatre in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center for Dramatic Art, 120 Country Club Rd., Chapel Hill, North Carolina. $10-$32. 919/962-PLAY (7529) or http://www.playmakersrep.org/tickets/. Note 1: There will be free post-show discussions on Feb. 6th axnd 10th. Note 2: There will be an all-access performance at 8 p.m. on Feb. 19th, which will be audio-described by Arts Access, Inc. of Raleigh, NC (http://www.artsaccessinc.org/), and also features Braille playbills, large-print playbills, and a tactile tour (arranged in advance) for patrons with impaired vision. PlayMakers Repertory Company: http://www.playmakersrep.org. Internet Broadway Database: http://www.ibdb.com/show.asp?ID=392483. Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0918927/.