Debate: Baldwin vs Buckley - Wilton's Music Hall - Review

"In 1965, an electrifying debate took place at the Cambridge Union Society. The speakers were James Baldwin, an acclaimed American novelist and civil rights activist, and William F. Buckley Jr., a conservative intellectual. The motion debated was 'The American Dream is at the expense of the American Negro'. The overflowing hall was packed to the rafters. Baldwin won the debate by 544 votes to 164. 60 years have passed, yet it echoes down the decades with issues raised still relevant today."

"Adapted and directed by Christopher McElroen, the debate is well staged at Wilton's where the audience sits attentively as students must have done in 1965. The wooden stage is bare aside from four chairs - one for each of the students who propose and oppose the motion, and for Baldwin and Buckley. The photographs of Baldwin and Buckley are projected onto the back wall. In 1965,the debate was televised and the original footage is used to good effect in this contemporary re-enactment."

An hour-long staged re-enactment recreates the 1965 Cambridge Union confrontation between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr., with actors reciting verbatim the original speeches. The production places a bare wooden stage with four chairs at Wilton's, projects photographs of Baldwin and Buckley, and integrates original televised footage for the presenter, audience shots, and the final vote announcement. Actors take their places as the archival film shows the Society president introducing speakers and declaring the result. The staging evokes the packed Union hall, the decisive vote, and the continuing resonance of the racial issues raised in 1965.

Read at London Unattached