Making up (for) the Great Man: Impersonation and Cosmetics in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Topdog/Underdog

In the play Topdog/Underdog (2001), Suzan-Lori Parks fulfils the onomastic destiny of two black brothers named Lincoln and Booth—the former, like his historical namesake, dying at the hands of the latter. “Linc” also earns a living reenacting the assassination of the American President he is named after. Dressed up in period costume and wearing white make-up, he waits for customers at an arcade to fire blanks at him before collapsing. Little critical attention has been paid to the use of make-up in the routine: it is commonly interpreted as a reversal of the performance tradition of blackface. I argue that by looking at the fate of the historical Lincoln’s corpse, the use of whiteface can be read as a reference to the murdered President’s body. The intention here is to draw on an event from cultural history whose connection to performance practice is usually overlooked, and connect it to the routine presented in the play, in order to add another interpretive strand to received explanations.