TOPDOG/UNDERDOG Opens 2023-24 Season at the Gamm

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) launches its 2023-24 season with Topdog/Underdog, Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play about brotherly love, sibling rivalry, and surviving the American Dream. The Gamm’s Season 39 opener runs from September 7-October 1.

Cliff Odle makes his Gamm directorial debut with Parks’ masterpiece. Infused with wit and raw dialogue, Topdog/Underdog tells the story of two fiercely competitive brothers who share a room in a squalid boardinghouse and a troubled past. Gamm newcomer Anthony Goss plays Lincoln, an ex-card shark now working a “straight” job impersonating Abraham Lincoln at an arcade. Marc Pierre (Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, BJJ/George/M’Closky in An Octoroon) plays Booth, a petty thief set on surpassing his older brother’s reputation as a notorious three-card monte hustler.

With Topdog/Underdog, Parks became the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in 2002. First produced in New York starring Jeffrey Wright and Don Cheadle, the play was followed by an extensive Broadway run and also won the Outer Critics Circle Award for playwriting. Last season’s Broadway production won the 2023 Tony Award for Best Revival.

Odle said he feels privileged to direct Parks’ landmark play.

“Topdog/Underdog is not only a multi-award-winning piece of art. It’s one of the most important plays in the African American canon,” Odle said. “This play has its hand on the pulse of a part of America that is often taken for granted and misunderstood. That is, African American men living in dire economic circumstances. While some would declare the problem solved, this country’s work remains largely unfinished. This script’s endurance is a kind of litmus test of the progress that has been made and that which we have yet to see.”

Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrella said he is delighted to welcome Odle back to Rhode Island and The Gamm in the role of director.

"Cliff is a true man of the theater,” Estrella said. “His is a unique talent, having made his mark on our stage in King Elizabeth, Don Carlos, and the 2020 radio broadcast of It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, among others. He is also a gifted teacher and much-produced playwright. For this incredible two-hander play, Cliff has paired a virtuosic cast to kick the door open to Season 39!"