Intellectuals dumb-down?
The sure-handed James Graham gives us Zachary Quinto and David Harewood playing out the Gore Vidal / William F Buckley TV Debates during the 1968 US Party Conventions which chose Richard Nixon to trounce Hubert Humphrey. These debates, a complete departure from the reporting norms of the time, were reported as electric – and the play gives us a good idea (at least dramatically) of how they rolled out.
Throughout the play a fine ensemble group of actors give us wonderful cameos of the celebrities who populated this strange time, from Warhol to the awful Democrat Mayor Daley of Chicago. Whilst the debate does touch on the political and philosophical content of this conservative V liberal spat (though not by any means to the extent the actual debates did) it focuses far more on the rivalry of the two behemoths and their varying strategies to ‘beat’ the other – debating success becomes more important than the actual outcome of the Conventions. It is perhaps a paradox that Buckley was seen as ‘loosing’ these debates when it was actually the Democrats, hitherto the party of power, which disappeared, effectively, for a generation. This is well staged, well acted and engaging. It is a final paradox that these ‘debates’ between people who considered themselves political philosophers and thinkers lit the blue touch-paper for the ‘celebrity, twitter, serious-thought-free’ political debates we now suffer. Vidal and Buckley lead to Trump. And neither would have been proud of that.
Winner Best New Play, Critics’ Circle 2022
Winner Best Theatre Production, Southbank Sky Arts Award 2022