The critically acclaimed staging of Debate: Baldwin vs Buckley returns to the UK with performances at Bristol Old Vic and the Cambridge Union as part of Black History Month.
On 18 February 1965 James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement was invited to speak at the Cambridge University Union in a televised debate. The motion was ‘The American Dream is at the Expense of the American Negro’. Opposing him was America’s most influential conservative intellectual William F Buckley Jr.
Described as one of the most compelling examples of political theatre, the critically acclaimed Debate: Baldwin vs Buckley returns to the UK as part of Black History Month.
Following a sold-out run in New York and London’s Stone Nest earlier this year, the american vicarious’ production, Debate: Baldwin vs Buckley will return to the UK to play at Bristol Old Vic on Sunday 22 October as part of the Bristol Ideas Festival and the Cambridge Union on Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th October, the exact setting where the historic 1965 debate took place.
The production reenacts this significant debate between James Baldwin and William F Buckley Jr at the Cambridge Union in 1965, in which Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, was pitched against Buckley, a fierce critic of the movement and America’s most influential conservative intellectual, to answer the question: ‘Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?’.
The production frames the live staging with video of the original debate and reveals, 58 years later, the deep roots and lasting legacy of racial conflict that continues to haunt America today.
Christopher McElroen directs this powerful and thought-provoking verbatim production. Reprising their roles are Teagle F. Bougere (Broadway’s The Tempest with Patrick Stewart and Ivo Van Hove’s The Crucible) as Baldwin and Eric T. Miller as Buckley and joining them in the cast from the UK are Tom Kiteley as Burford and Christopher Wareham as Heycock.
The Bristol Old Vic performance will be introduced by author and playwright Caryl Philips, who will set the play in context of the great changes in the 1960s US and UK. Philips will also join the actors in a discussion after the play. Caryl Philips worked with Baldwin on the radio play, A Kind of Home – James Baldwin in Paris in 1984.
The running time is approximately 1 hour with no interval followed by a 20 minute q&a.
Debate: Baldwin vs Buckley runs:
Bristol Old Vic – Sunday 22 October
Cambridge Union – Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 October
