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Review: Debate: Baldwin Vs Buckley, Stone Nest

Debate: Baldwin Vs Buckley is a staged dramatisation of a televised debate that occurred in 1965 at the Cambridge University Union. Two speakers discussed the topic “Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?”: James Baldwin, a respected black author who forthrightly contested racist oppression in the USA, and William F Buckley Jr, a right-wing author who styled himself as the respectable face of conservative America. Tonight, minimal staging sees four chairs framing the ‘boxing ring’, whilst an ancient television set plants us in 1965 and nods to the original format. The words delivered are only…

Summary

Rating

Excellent

Superbly performed in an extraordinarily sympathetic venue, this riveting verbatim debate from 1965 has chilling resonances for today.

Debate: Baldwin Vs Buckley is a staged dramatisation of a televised debate that occurred in 1965 at the Cambridge University Union. Two speakers discussed the topic “Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?”: James Baldwin, a respected black author who forthrightly contested racist oppression in the USA, and William F Buckley Jr, a right-wing author who styled himself as the respectable face of conservative America.

Tonight, minimal staging sees four chairs framing the ‘boxing ring’, whilst an ancient television set plants us in 1965 and nods to the original format. The words delivered are only those spoken on that evening: there is no attempt to make a wider story out of the event. Yet simply by performing this debate in the current day and in a theatrical space, it becomes removed from its historical archive and is once again viscerally alive with contemporary significance.

There are some stonking performances here, in a venue that is extraordinarily complementary. The vaulted ceiling of Stone Nest is reminiscent of the hallowed halls of Cambridge, but equally, as a former chapel, it brings an almost religious formality to the discussion, which itself contains multiple references to Christianity. The two men are almost like preachers.

Teagle F Bougere as Baldwin is magnificent – truly thrilling to watch. He delivers the eloquently crafted arguments with enormous power, dignity and poignancy. This is a man of intense emotion; an everyman carrying the weight of historical racial suffering. It seems that only a thin veneer contains the exhaustion of centuries of repression, while an anger boils ferociously beneath the surface. At times, sadness seeps through as he describes the endless torments and indignities piled upon Black Americans, rejected by their own countrymen even as their abuse supports the rise of the American Dream.

Baldwin speaks emotively of the perpetuation of systemic racism, and the need to make it stop. He raises ideas that I had believed quite modern, but are here demonstrated to be nearly 60 years old. This begs the question: why were we not listening the first time?

Where Bougere’s delivery is powerful and emotional, Eric T Miller’s performance of Buckley is piercingly meticulous, self-aggrandising and manipulative. With one tiny snicker Buckley undermines Baldwin’s moment in the spotlight, speaking volumes about innate disrespect for the Black community. Buckley’s dinner suit aligns him with the elite of Cambridge; the Establishment, and throughout Miller engages self-assuredly with the audience, attempting to ally with them. But the rhetoric is hollow. Arguing a case for maintaining the status quo of segregation by victim shaming Baldwin and his race, Buckley’s stance is poisoned with exclusive, toxic white supremacy and there’s no surprise how the voting results. It’s fascinating that both men claim to be working towards a society with no hate, but are ultimately so disparate: itself a comment on the ambiguity of what it is to be human.

The form of the performance, as a verbatim enactment staged out of its time, generates a theatricality that beautifully echoes Baldwin’s ideas of uncertain reality and experience. This abstraction allows us to examine ideas of race clearly. Sadly, the topic is still under discussion in today’s reality, when George Floyd’s murder can take place openly on the streets. But the erudite format of debating shows how contesting ideas could instead be disputed with civility, with each speaker allowed the opportunity to own their argument and identity, far from the brutal combat of everyday racism.

This is a riveting, timely piece of work with superb performances, in a deceptively simple format. It’s a call to turn away from a world set alight by hatred: a demonstration of how we, as a society of very different people, might behave better to improve our shared world.


Produced by: the american vicarious
Director: Christopher McElroen

Debate: Baldwin VS Buckley plays at Stone Nest until 15 April. Further information and bookings can be found here.

About Mary Pollard

By her own admission Mary goes to the theatre far too much, and will watch just about anything. Her favourite musical is Matilda, which she has seen 16 times, but she’s also an Anthony Neilson and Shakespeare fan - go figure. She has a long history with Richmond Theatre, but is currently helping at Shakespeare's Globe as a steward and in the archive. She's also having fun being ET's specialist in children's theatre and puppetry, and being a Super Assessor for the Offies! Mary now insists on being called The Master having used the Covid pandemic to achieve an award winning MA in London's Theatre and Performance.