"Baldwin & Buckley at Cambridge" at The Public Theater

 I have seen TV clips of the debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley at the Cambridge Union in 1965, so I thought it would be pretty cool to see that dramatized on stage. So off we went last night to the Public Theater to see their presentation of just that: Baldwin & Buckley at Cambridge. Conceived and developed by the innovative group Elevator Repair Service (whose show Ganz, a dramatization of The Great Gatsby, was so good at Berkeley Rep a few years back (but apparently at a time when I was not blogging).

The Play

In some sense I'm hesitant to call this a play, since it's really more of a declamation of the speeches actually delivered back in 1965. But there is some staging and a bit of acting around it, so we'll just go ahead and treat it as a play, and see where that leads.

The script for the play is, with only slight modifications, a transcript of the actual Cambridge Union debate on February 18, 1965. There were four speeches that night in this "debate" on the question "Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?" Cambridge students delivered the brief opening arguments to introduce the question, and then in turn, the writer James Baldwin and editor/commentator William F. Buckley took up the question in longer form.

I have to put away my expectations from my years as a debater and coach, since this form of debate is more a matter of dueling speeches than actual clash or addressing and rebutting of the statements of the other side. Essentially, Baldwin and Buckley offered separate orations on either side of the question.

At the end of the debate, there is a brief scene between Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry, compiled from letters, interviews, and writings of the two.

On the whole, I think the debate itself is interesting, but not particularly compelling on its own. The last scene attempts to add a bit of context and interpretation, but not nearly enough to justify its inclusion in the piece. Since the whole thing comes in at about one hour, it feels somewhat minimal. I would definitely have preferred to see more material, perhaps culled from subsequent writings or interviews with Baldwin and Buckley discussing the debate and the aftermath.

The Production

The Public did a pretty good job with this. I quite liked the use of the intimate Anspacher Theater and the minimal set (two tables with lecterns, and a chair for each). Unfortunately, while Baldwin (Grieg Sargeant) spoke, all I could see was the back of the seated Buckley (Ben Jalosa Williams), so I'm not sure how much he was reacting, emoting, etc. I suspect the aloof Buckley would have reacted very little. And when Buckley spoke, I could see Baldwin reacting a bit, but only a little, seeming annoyed (with justification).

Since there is little direct clash in the debate itself (e.g., Buckley mostly addresses Baldwin's published writings, not his words or arguments in the debate), the audience is left to weigh the arguments themselves. Admittedly, that's what the audience at the actual event did, but for dramatic purposes, that's asking a lot of an audience many decades removed from the actual events and people.

And then the final scene with Baldwin having a smoke while Hansberry (Daphne Gaines) does some ironing with the radio playing quietly seems pretty inconsequential until they both break the fourth wall and address the modern audience directly, which feels a bit jarring in what has otherwise been a straight recreation. That whole little postscript feels inadequate and unfinished.

The truly odd choice, to me, however, is the way Sargeant does a genuinely high-quality impression of Baldwin's vocal and physical mannerisms, but Williams mostly does not do that with Buckley. About three times he slips into Buckley's languid, condescending cadence and upper-class accent, but then reverts again to his own voice and style. I have no idea why. It didn't seem to be done for any particular dramatic purpose. I can only suppose that a prolonged use of that style would have bored and irritated the modern audience, but then why use it at all?

Bottom line

Truly, this all felt like kind of a good idea, but not thought through very thoroughly. It's not very satisfying as a purely historical recreation, nor is it at all satisfying as a dramatic presentation based on the historical event. I can think of lots of ways this could be more interesting, and there are probably many others I haven't imagined. But there has to be something better that can be done with this material than what the Public presents here.

I walked away disappointed in both the effort and the outcome. Baldwin and Buckley both deserve better than this, and the collaboration of the Public Theater and Elevator Repair Service leads the audience to expect that there will be something more and better. But there isn't.

In short, don't bother. Maybe someone will turn this into something good, but as it is, your hour could be better spent elsewhere.