Topdog/Underdog

Zoetic Stage has picked a socially conscious scorcher for its season-opening play. Suzan Lori-Parks’ dark comedy about two African-American brothers navigating blackness in the United States won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002, making Lori-Parks the first woman of color to win the award. The shattering play, which premiered on Broadway the same year, touches on gambling, poverty, love and history, earning comparisons to Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.