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Review

Play's punch is in the actors' hands

By MARTY CLEAR
Published January 28, 2006

TAMPA - Some plays have an impact that lasts well beyond their two-hour life on stage. They implant themselves in your soul and their influence on your psyche grows in the hours, days and weeks after you've left the theater.

Suzan-Lori Parks' Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog seems to want to be that kind of a play, and very nearly succeeds.

In fact, one of the most surprising aspects of this play, currently being produced by Jobsite Theater at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, is that the enormous emotional punch that it delivers doesn't leave a lasting mark.

Watching this character study of two downtrodden but proud brothers is often a harrowing experience, especially because the two performances in this production are rich, powerful and deeply credible.

Longtime local actor Ranney plays Lincoln, a retired master three-card monte dealer. He has given up his life as a scam artist and ekes out a living at an arcade, portraying Abraham Lincoln and re-enacting the assassination.

He lives in a seedy New York room with his younger brother Booth, a small-time thief who's constantly begging Lincoln to teach him the tricks of the three-card trade so they can make some real money. Lincoln, whose partner was shot to death, realizes the con man's life isn't as glamorous as Booth believes.

Derek Lance Jefferson, a newcomer to the local theater scene, plays Booth aggressively. You can feel the seething frustration just below the surface. He sometimes may go a little over the top, but both he and Ranney deliver some absolutely stunning moments of elegant subtlety.

It's obvious that Ranney and Jefferson, along with playwright Parks and director Paul Potenza, have genuine affection for the two characters, and that the two brothers have deep love and respect for each other.

The gentle and subtle character development in the first act is masterful. In the second act, it gives way to some shocking plot developments.

Those developments deliver a stark but temporal impact. One reason that impact isn't more enduring is that the climax, which comes in the last seconds of the play, is pat and somewhat telegraphed, but doesn't really make dramatic sense. Its immediate power masks the fact that it's kind of cheap, and after the emotion of the moment wears off the cheapness becomes more apparent.

That's not to say that Topdog/Underdog isn't a great theater experience, though. Parks gives us unique characters with a warm, even charming, relationship, Ranney and Jefferson are an absolute joy to watch and Potenza directs with assuredness and understanding. David Jenkins provides a wonderful sound design (a mixture of blues, R&B and hip-hop) that enhances the mood, the action and the characters.

The play seems to promise more than it delivers. But still, what it delivers is more than most plays even promise.

Topdog/Underdog runs through Feb. 12 at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Shimberg Playhouse. Show times are 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $16.50 and $21.50 plus service charge. (813) 229-7827 or tbpac.org.

[Last modified January 28, 2006, 01:37:10]