By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theater Critic 
Produced by ion theatre company, staged by Moxie Theatre Founding Artistic Director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, and featuring two of San Diego’s best-known African-American actors, Laurence Brown and Mark Christopher Lawrence, Suzan-Lori Parks’ 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Topdog/Underdog” plays at ion theatre’s Elaine Lipinsky Stage through May 12.
As realized by all involved, the work – intensely funny, frightening and insightful – leaves onlookers stunned as it moves from benign conversations about life, women, abandonment and employment to much darker and ominous things.
The action, which takes place in a boardinghouse room shared by adult brothers, concerns the older, more responsible Lincoln (Lawrence) and the younger Booth (Brown), a player from the get-go. The two were named after Abraham Lincoln and his assassin John Wilkes Booth, as a cruel joke on the part of their father. Both parents took off by the time the boys were 16 and 11, and “Link” (Lincoln) kept them one step ahead of child welfare authorities and provides an income by wielding his expertise at a playing card con called three-card monte.
Feeling that success at his monte game was running out, Link quits. He works as a Lincoln impersonator at an arcade, where he sits in whiteface daily awaiting numerous assassinations at the hands of tourists. Booth, who aspires to become a successful three-card monte expert himself, berates Link for participating in what he considers an even greater con.
Through their dialogue, details of the past emerge. We care for these characters and hope for some avenue by which they might escape their hopeless situation. Each possesses pride, bravado and blindness in equal measure. Their love/hate relationship is of epic proportions. We become absorbed in Parks’ language and rhythms, suggested by the patter that goes with the con as the mark is distracted from what is really happening. We are engrossed by both men, their occasional glimmers of vulnerability, and the tautness of their tempers; and still, the denouement is devastating, even surprising; the tension unbearable, exhilarating and relentless.
Brown is familiar with San Diego theater audiences and recently performed in Moxie’s “A Raisin in the Sun.”
Both Brown and Lawrence played a role in Cygnet Theatre’s award-winning production of “The Piano Lesson,” which was also directed by Sonnenberg. Both actors have numerous television credits. Lawrence is perhaps best known for his role as Big Mike in the NBC series “Chuck.”
Clothes make the man and contribute to the play’s comedy. Jeannie Galioto’s costumes convey a palette of illusion and self-delusion. Jason Bieber creates the lighting design, Nicholas Drashner the sound, and Brian Redfern, the scenic design. All in concert, they create a splendid squalor as backdrop for this important American play that covers immense territory as it explores the African-American male’s search for identity.
“Topdog/Underdog” continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and at 4 p.m. Saturdays through May 12, ion theatre company, 3704 Sixth Ave. at Pennsylvania, Hillcrest, $10-$29, iontheatre.com 619-600-5020.
