Topdog/Underdog

Playwright Anton Chekhov famously claimed that a gun that is present onstage in Act I must go off by Act III. Booth presents the gun at the beginning of the first scene, nearly shooting Lincoln for startling him in his costume. The presence of the gun, in addition to the history of the brothers’ names, promises that by the end of the play, one brother will most likely shoot the other with the gun. Booth uses the gun to augment his own masculinity. Lincoln sees the gun as an unnecessary threat, having experienced the loss of his friend, Lonny. When Lincoln is teaching Booth about hustling cards, he takes the gun off him and sets it aside, noting that they are not actually in real danger in their apartment. The gun is both representative of Booth’s masculinity and not quite enough, as Lincoln asserts when he tells Booth that if he wants to hustle with Lincoln’s old crew, he will need a more serious gun.

In the arcade, shooting Abraham Lincoln with a gun becomes a game. Lincoln refers to customers who select their gun before shooting him. The arcade has a variety of real guns that have been altered so that they no longer shoot.