DEALING WITH THE
HAND THEY WERE GIVEN

Suzan-Lori Parks stacks the deck against two
brothers whose love, rivalry, and hunger for
a better life turn one rigged game into another

Alano Miller as Lincoln and Elijah Jones as Booth in Topdog/Underdog at The Old Globe through October 18, 2026

There are only two actors onstage in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog, but there is nothing small about the world they create.

Now playing at The Old Globe, Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is funny, unsettling, and increasingly tense. It is an intimate story about two brothers that opens into something much larger, touching on race, masculinity, family, money, and the elusive promise of getting ahead in America.

The brothers are Lincoln (Alano Miller) and Booth (Elijah Jones), names bestowed upon them by a father with a particularly dark sense of humor. They share a cramped room and a lifetime of history, much of it unresolved.

Alano Miller as Lincoln and (background) Elijah Jones as Booth

Lincoln, the older brother, was once a gifted three-card monte hustler. He has left that life behind and now earns a meager paycheck at an arcade, dressing as Abraham Lincoln and allowing customers to pretend to assassinate him. Booth wants what his brother once had. He dreams of becoming a successful card hustler himself and tries to convince Lincoln to teach him the game. He is also determined to get his former girlfriend, Grace, back, and talks of a future that seems more secure in his imagination than in reality.

What begins with the familiarity of brothers living together—teasing, arguing, competing, and getting under each other’s skin—gradually reveals an undercurrent of resentment. Abandoned by both parents as teens, neither has resolved his trauma. They love each other, but Parks never lets us forget that affection and rivalry can occupy the same space.

Miller masterfully brings an understated authority to Lincoln. There is a bone-deep weariness about him, the posture of a man who knows how dangerous the street game can be because he barely survived it. But when Lincoln begins handling the cards again, another side emerges. Miller reveals Lincoln’s lightning-fast charisma and makes it clear that walking away from his former life was never a clean break.

Elijah Jones as Booth

Jones gives Booth a frenzied energy. He is restless and hungry—for money, for Grace, for his brother’s respect, and for a life that is moving forward. Jones effectively mines the humor in Booth without turning him into a joke. As the play progresses, that bravado begins to expose something much more vulnerable and volatile.

Together, Miller and Jones create a convincingly complicated sibling relationship. The balance of power between them shifts constantly; affection becomes competition, joking turns to cruelty, and confidence gives way to deep insecurity.

The con game itself becomes far more than a plot device. The challenge to “find the winning card” serves as a brutal lens on a system where winning depends less on skill than on realizing the game was rigged from the start. Lincoln knows that. Booth desperately wants to believe otherwise.

Elijah Jones as Booth and Alano Miller as Lincoln

Director Steve H. Broadnax III trusts his actors, letting the tension accumulate naturally from the text—the rhythms, repetitions, verbal games, and shifts in language. In the intimacy of the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, there is virtually no distance between the audience and these two men as their private rituals and old wounds play out in the round.

Arnel Sancianco’s scenic design makes effective use of the compact playing space, while Jason Lynch’s lighting and Curtis Craig’s sound help build the play’s tension.

More than two decades after its premiere, Topdog/Underdog retains every bit of its original bite. Parks gives us two deeply flawed men who can be infuriating, selfish, loving, and heartbreaking, sometimes within the exact same scene. For anyone who values actor-driven theatre, Miller and Jones give audiences two compelling reasons to see this.

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photos by Rich Soublet II
poster artwork by Yunyi Dai

Topdog/Underdog
The Old Globe
Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way in San Diego
ends on October 18, 2026
for tickets (starting at $44), call 619.234.5623 or visit The Old Globe

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