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Parks bench
Actors change places in Topdog
BY SALLY CRAGIN

Alternative theater takes on a new meaning when a much-lauded production of Topdog/Underdog comes to New Repertory Theatre on Wednesday. Suzan-Lori Parks’s intense two-hander about symbolically named African-American brothers sharing a tenement room won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for drama. And this production, a collaboration among Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, Providence’s Trinity Repertory Company, and New Rep, comes with a twist: its two actors, Joe Wilson Jr. and Kes Khemnu, alternate in the shifting togdog/underdog roles of Lincoln and Booth.

Granted, trading places on stage isn’t a new concept — Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly alternated roles in a 2000 Broadway staging of Sam Shepard’s True West. English Shakespeareans have done it. And the Marx Brothers occasionally exchanged get-ups when they took their high jinks on the road. But Wilson and Khemnu had no idea each would be playing both parts until they arrived at rehearsal.

"This is the sort of thing that’s done a lot in rep companies," explains director Kent Gash, adding that the decision was made only after the casting was complete and he "knew both men had the chops to go on the journey." He was also inspired by the prospect of pioneering a process that had been discussed for the original Joseph Papp Public Theatre staging, which starred Jeffrey Wright and Don Cheadle. Moreover, Gash was aware that since the production would play three theaters, the actors "would be running the play three times as long, and I wanted them to have as rich and potent an experience with this text as they could."

How hard a feat is this? "It’s easy now," Khemnu declares. "It was just a matter of having established the work in the rehearsal process." "It’s been challenging and difficult," counters Wilson. "But it’s not as difficult as I thought it would be because Suzan-Lori Parks has done such an amazing job with such delicate writing. These characters are written so specifically on how they talk and move through space — it’s a credit to great playwriting."

Even late in the Trinity run, both men are still evolving their ideas about how to present each brother. The older Lincoln is employed in a penny arcade where he dresses in whiteface to portray his namesake, the 16th president, and is reassassinated many times a day with a cap pistol. Alcohol helps him cope. Wanna-be three-card-monte whiz Booth is the hustler, who’s more curious and more willing to take chances.

Khemnu thinks of both brothers as having musical equivalents: Lincoln is more "heavy-metal, louder and harsher" whereas Booth is more "hip-hop, with youthful bravado and vulnerability." For Wilson, the two brothers are marked by radically different body language. "Lincoln’s center is in his head. Booth’s center is his crotch, and I make physical adjustments to constantly remind myself of that."

Khemnu is inspired by the familial connection. "My Lincoln is my grown-up Booth. My Booth is much more physical — he does extra kinds of things that represent the fact that he’s showing off something. Lincoln has to exist in a cocoon-like state, so there’s not much movement with him." Wilson adds that even his breathing is affected. Lincoln, he says, is a controlled predator, but "Booth is a reactionary kind of creature. My breathing is a lot more shallow when I’m playing Booth."

Both actors acknowledge that switching roles has been a challenge and one they found perplexing as well as daunting. "My whole thing," Khemnu asks, "is, why do people want to see us [change parts] unless we’re established stars?" Wilson agrees: "Kes and I are not stars — we’re young actors trying to build careers. In the end — it sounds artsy and a little kooky, but the reward for us as actors is proving we can do it and call upon everything we’ve been taught."

Topdog/Underdog moves to New Repertory Theatre, 54 Lincoln Street in Newton Highlands, February 23 through March 27. Tickets are $30 to $48; all (617) 332-1646 or visit www.newrep.org


Issue Date: February 18 - 24, 2005
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