Sibling rivalry is older than time, and often biblical in nature.  Just think Cain and Abel, and Jacob and Esau.  Yet even they cannot match up to the intensity of Jubilee Theatre’s crackling production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ ferocious, fraternal drama, Topdog/Underdog.

Artistic director, Tre Garrett directs Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning heady-toned play about family, racial identity, and vulnerability with a naturalism and pedal-to-the-metal fierceness that is exhilarating.  Just two shows into his tenure at Jubilee, and Garrett has put his stamp on an already excellent theater that demands serious attention and full houses.

David Jeremiah (who was superb in everything last year) plays the older brother, Lincoln.  He is a former three-card monte con who is now reformed/relegated to working in an arcade shooting gallery as that other Lincoln.  In a layered nod to poetic symmetry, his younger brother is named Booth (Gregory “Rico” Parker).  Booth, who wants to be known as “three-card,” and has a full-on case of younger brother syndrome shoplifts for a living and keeps the room that both brothers inhabit.

All of the action takes place in that ramshackle room (set design by Michael Pettigrew) with a single bed and not much else except for the masculine detritus of single men in a cramped space.   Booth has aspirations of inheriting the scam that Lincoln has abdicated, wooing his girlfriend, Grace, and generally raging and strutting in his room like a caged lion.

Lincoln has blown through his “inheritance,” lost his swagger and his wife, Cookie, to impersonate a “dead white man” in a raggedy beard, stovepipe hat and black coat with demeaning whiteface makeup.  He has escaped his former life to reach a sort of freedom (emancipation!) that feels like a walking death underlined by his ghostlike appearance as the 16^th president.

If the older brother is numb to his own existence, then the younger is too alive in his.  Booth is an electric, menacing force of anger and bravado who carries a visible pistol in his waistband even on a date in his own room because “you never know.”

Jeremiah’s performance as the sedate one in this duo is a change from his usual full-out intensity.  It’s his most mature, nuanced performance to date, and the role seems written for him.  The unbearable sadness of a life wasted and spent oozes from his every facial expression and movement, and the experience is utterly entrancing.

Parker’s portrayal is no less captivating.  He is the embodiment of restlessness and visceral fury destined for tragedy. It’s a powerful and challenging play of mature themes, salty language and situations meant for “grown folk,” but Topdog pays outrageous dividends for the patient and courageous.  Brilliant!