Laughing, Lincoln explains that the conceit behind Three-card Monte is that the dealer always decides when he wins. Lincoln leads him to believe that he can win, inducing Booth to wager his $500 inheritance on the game before beating him. Lincoln suggests that Booth find employment in order to keep Grace, calling his card shark abilities "double left-handed." Insulted, Booth challenges him to a game of Three-card Monte. Meanwhile, Booth boasts that Grace has proposed marriage to him. Lincoln spent his Booth saved and hid his, never even opening the stocking that held it.Īfter losing his job at the arcade, Lincoln returns to Three-card Monte the next day and comes home exuberant. Each parent, before leaving with a new lover, left one brother $500 in cash, which they refer to as their "inheritance". The brothers reflect on their past together: Their parents deserted them as teenagers. Booth suggests that Lincoln save his job by vividly acting out Abraham Lincoln's death throes after the customers shoot him with the provided blank-an idea they rehearse before abandoning. In the present, Lincoln is about to be laid off, replaced at his job by a wax model. Lincoln reveals that his wife Cookie had misread his depression as lack of interest in her, before she threw him out and slept with Booth. He boasts to his brother about their relationship, but in truth she spurns his advances. Idolizing his brother's former glory, Booth aspires to become a Three-card Monte card sharp, frequently practicing the routine in his apartment, although his act is awkward his own talent lies in shoplifting.īooth is preoccupied with a woman named Grace whom he tries to impress with shoplifted luxuries.
Lincoln had sworn off the hustle after one of his crew had been shot dead, believing he would be next. Booth repeatedly attempts to persuade Lincoln to return to running games of Three-card Monte. While the work is honest, both brothers find it humiliating. But Lincoln, who works at an arcade as a whiteface Abraham Lincoln impersonator, is their sole source of income.
Booth reminds Lincoln that his presence was meant to be a temporary arrangement. Lincoln lives with Booth, his younger brother, after being thrown out by his wife. The play chronicles the adult lives of two African-American brothers as they cope with poverty, racism, work, women, and their troubled upbringings. In 2002, Parks received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Outer Critics Circle Award for the play it received other awards for the director and cast. The next year it opened on Broadway, at the Ambassador Theatre, where it played for several months. Topdog/Underdog is a play by American playwright Suzan-Lori Parks which premiered in 2001 off-Broadway in New York City.
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