These plays are top quality and deserving of the awards that they receive yet are most likely that much better on stage. As I read through scripts, I notice that a play has to have a lot of action or a well rounded cast of characters for me to be moved by it in written form. TopDog/Underdog was a better than expected play for me although not my favorite Pulitzer winner this year. All of these points would lead to lively discussions, and it is my hope that this play is taught in high school English classrooms around the country. At the same time it is courageous to show the less than stellar English spoken by people with less than a twelfth grade compulsory education. The dialogue which includes both Lincoln and Booth as card sharks is original and lively and could be indicative of life on the streets. Neither brother had a positive role model encouraging them to further their education, and, fending for themselves in a broken home, they both turned to life on the streets.

Both Lincoln and Booth quit school at ages 16 and 13 and neither could obtain decent jobs. Indirectly Parks shows how education is one's ticket to bettering oneself.

It was intriguing for me to see what an African American woman thinks of these issues and how she chose to address them in her script bluntly offending people and still getting her point across. Parks also discusses issues such as divorce and other non nuclear families as well as the prevalence of guns and violence in inner city African communities. While these means of either saving or gaining a few bucks are only illegal until one gets caught, they speak to Booth's less than stellar character. Booth shoplifts, cons Lincoln out of his paycheck, acts as a card shark, and sweet talks the women on his block. Lincoln works at an arcade dressed as Abe Lincoln all the while inquiring into other and better legitimate means of employment. Lincoln and Booth, despite being given their names as a joke, do their best to live up to their namesakes. This continues to be a hot button issue and one which Parks so eloquently addresses on stage. They are caught in a cycle of poverty and scrape to get by, either in legal or illegal jobs.

Parks depicts two African American brothers named Lincoln and Booth, their names given to them by their father when he was drunk as a joke. Here is what I have gleaned from the script: The acting most likely would have earned this another half star at least.

I am sure the acting on stage starring Don Cheadle and Jeremy Wright was even better than the script, which I rated 3.5 stars. In what will be an abbreviated review during this holiday week, I thought that Parks was gutsy in her writing, which ended up earning her accolades. The latest entry in my personal Pulitzer challenge is Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, the 2002 winner for drama.