DEBATE: BALDWIN VS BUCKLEY
Wilton’s Music Hall
★★★★
“a vital reminder that dangerous ideas often come speaking eloquently and dressed in a nice suit”
In 1965, two prominent American intellectuals, acclaimed Black author James Baldwin and white conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. met at Cambridge University to debate the motion ‘The American dream is at the expense of the American negro’ before a crowd of students, who would vote for a winner. The debate was broadcast on television and has become a reference point for the arguments of the Civil Rights movement. Now, the American Vicarious company brings this debate to the London stage, adapted and directed by Christopher McElroen with production director Erica Laird.
I don’t intend to relitigate the outcome of the debate, won as convincingly by Baldwin here as it was in 1965 (by a landslide in the room of 544 votes to 164, and equally emphatically in public opinion), but as a piece of theatre it remains compelling. The simple staging of four chairs, mimicking the stage of the Cambridge Union where the debate was held, focuses attention on the participants and their words. This staging is complemented by video from the television broadcast projected onto the rear wall of the stage, in which a presenter introduces the debate, and the chair introduces speakers, first Cambridge students David Heycock and Jeremy Burford and then Baldwin and Buckley. The students and Buckley wear black tie and Baldwin a suit.
Arnell Powell is excellent as Baldwin. He channels the, often barely contained, anger of the writer at the injustices of America, commanding the stage when delivering his speech. He masterfully conveys Baldwin’s nuanced and powerful arguments on systemic racism, the reality of the American dream and the crushing dehumanisation of both Black and white communities enacted by racism. Seated when other speakers have the floor, he subtly and amusingly, reacts facially to the speeches of the other parties, and pointedly refuses to rise to the deliberate provocations of Buckley.
For his part, Eric T. Miller brilliantly embodies the smarmy southern-gentleman charm used by Buckley to put an acceptable face on unacceptable ideas. This approach may not be as successful in 2026 as in 1965, at least in this room, as many of his arguments elicited contemptuous snorts from the audience, which Miller dealt with excellently, engaging with the audience members and rebutting them without breaking character. His grandstanding and more confrontational approach stands in contrast to Baldwin’s.
The opening debate between two Cambridge undergraduates sets the stage, with Christopher Wareham as David Heycock supporting Baldwin’s position, and Tom Kiteley as Jeremy Burford, with Buckley. Both are strong, evidencing the swagger of self-confident (and perhaps self-important) students, Kiteley is especially impressive as the intellectually slippery Burford arguing almost at cross purposes to the motion, and avoiding the more moral arguments put forward strongly by Wareham. All four performances are exemplary, and the format of the piece affords each cast member the opportunity to shine.
Debate is a timely intervention in contemporary political discourse. Despite the setting giving an appearance of ‘doing politics the right way’, Buckley’s duplicitous and destabilising rhetorical tactics undermine debate, and their influence is evident in far-right commentators today. He deploys obviously cherry-picked statistics to support his point, which are neither strictly relevant nor easy to refute, as well as presenting fringe cases as an argument against systemic issues. He also shifts the goalposts of the debate, largely avoiding the motion and arguing that Baldwin wants to destroy Western civilisation. When pressed on this, he quotes from Baldwin: ‘the only thing that white people have that black people need… is power’, laying bare the white supremacy at the foundation of his understanding of Western civilisation.
Again, the outcome of the debate itself has been long decided on the strength of Baldwin’s position, but this new re-enactment is a vital reminder that dangerous ideas often come speaking eloquently and dressed in a nice suit.
DEBATE: BALDWIN VS BUCKLEY
Wilton’s Music Hall
Reviewed on 4th February 2026
by Rob Tomlinson
Photography by the American Vicarious
