The names sported by the brothers in Suzan-Lori Parks's Topdog/Underdog are their absentee father's idea of a joke. Lincoln is the older one; he's adept at three-card monte, although he's sworn off the cards since one of his crew was shot and killed. Booth is the younger one, who wants desperately to learn the tricks of the flim-flam trade. There's someone else closely associated with the enterprise who, metaphorically speaking, is adept at three-card monte, and that's Parks. Her two-character whirligig of a play is entertaining but ultimately insubstantial. The way the brothers work their game, it's the deuce of spades that isn't where it should be; the way Parks works her game, it's th[...]

Everything about Topdog/Underdog at the Public Theater is first rate--except the play. The production has got topdog star power in the persons of Don Cheadle and Jeffrey Wright, both of whom are exceptional in this two-hander about the love/hate relationship between brothers. It's got top-dog director George C. Wolfe, who stages the play with economy and energy--and who had the clout to entice our two movie-star leads back to the stage.

Unfortunately, it's also got underdog playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, who has riddled this work with a fusillade of metaphors that kill its dramatic impact. When the two lead characters in a contemporary drama are named Booth and Lincoln, it's hard not to su[...]