Topdog/Underdog
By Suzan-Lori Parks
Directed by Philip Akin
2011-2012
Nov 22nd –Dec 4th 2011
Starring: Kevin Hanchard, Nigel Shawn Williams
Set/Costume Design: Camellia Koo
Lighting Designer: Kevin Lamotte
Lighting Design Associate: Andrew Smith
Sound Designer: Joe Lapinski
Stage Manager: Meredith MacDonald
Production Manager: Erin L. Birkenbergs
The 2002 Pulitzer Prize winning play, set in a rundown New York apartment tells the story of two brothers as they explore the competition between them. It is a dog-eat-dog world, and the play dramatizes the contradiction between dreams of a possible life and a present which is as dangerous as it is illusory.
“Philip Akin’s formidable direction and the stellar performances of Kevin Hanchard and Nigel Shawn Williams (…) have yielded one of the best productions in festival history.”
— Jamie Portman, Ottawa Citizen
Topdog/Underdog, a co-production of Obsidian Theatre and the Shaw Festival earned three Dora Mavor Moore awards: Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Male in a Principal Role Nigel Shawn Williams and Outstanding Direction Philip Akin.
