The Rundown:
Before social media drove political coverage, networks bolstered election news with the help of outside contributors. In 1968, ABC hired intellectuals and writers William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal to spice up its broadcast of the Republican and Democratic conventions, which is the basis for Best Of Enemies, a new play based on true events. After debuting to widespread acclaim in December 2021 at London’s Young Vic theatre, the production transfers to the West End for a limited run.
Reprising the role of Buckley is David Harewood, best known to audiences for TV shows Homeland and Super Girl. Joining him for the transfer is Zachary Quinto, making his London theatre debut. Quinto, of course, found fame with Heroes and playing Spock in the Star Trek film reboot. In the U.S., Quinto has appeared on stage in Angels in America, The Boys in the Band (and the Netflix movie version), and The Glass Menagerie.
No Tea, No Shade:
Alongside the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., US headlines in 1968 were dominated by the war in Vietnam, civil rights protests, and the rise of the counterculture.
As hard as it might be to believe now, the main news networks (before the arrival of Fox News) strived to be centrist and impartial. This could make the task of covering conventions something of a drag (but not of the Joan Jett Blakk variety): delegates give long, often dull speeches toeing the party line.
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ABC was lagging behind in the ratings and had a limited budget. It hit upon the idea of pitting two high-profile intellectuals against each other, picking William F. Buckley, publisher of the National Review, and Gore Vidal.
The gay writer was fresh from the controversy of his latest novel, Myra Breckinridge. Both men were also failed candidates for office. Buckley stood for Mayor of New York City while Vidal stood as a Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives eight years earlier.
At first, both men have to be convinced to take part in the debates. There’s a great scene with Quinto as Vidal at a party attended by Andy Warhol, bemused at the growing influence of TV. He remarks with disbelief at hearing about people arranging their living room furniture around the box in the corner.
Buckley shares reservations about dumbing down political discourse. However, both are assured they can keep the conversation as highbrow as they like. Ultimately, their vanity, and the lure of such a large platform, win them over.
Going head-to-head, fireworks explode. Buckley and Vidal clearly detest one another and what each stands for. Soon enough, the highbrow intellectualism is dropped for waspish barbs, bitchy put-downs, and personal attacks.
The Republican convention takes place in Miami, with delegates choosing Richard Nixon as their presidential candidate. At the Democratic congress in Chicago, things are even more explosive, with protests outside the convention center leading to police brutality and mass arrests.
Soon, both Buckley and Vidal realize the magnitude of what’s going on around them. An on-screen slagging match might be entertaining, but don’t they have a higher responsibility here?
Let’s Have a Moment:
Best Of Enemies fully deserves its praise. Graham’s script, with its echoes of Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon, crams in a multitude of references to summon up the ghosts of 1968.
Herrin’s direction is fast-paced. With the ingenious use of lighting and video, the action switches between scenes with lightning speed. Characters bark into a camera one way, then switch immediately to another character in another location and back again: rat-a-tat-tat.
Harewood’s color-blind casting as Buckley has surprised some (Buckley was white). However, few could deny Harewood inhabits the role.
“Philosophically, ideologically and politically, Buckley is as far away from me as one can imagine,” Harewood told the Observer last year. “And yet the more I read about him, the more I’ve come to admire him. It’s a terrific challenge for me on so many levels.”
Quinto is perfect as Vidal, channeling sneery disdain with aplomb. The play doesn’t shy away from exploring Vidal’s sexuality. There’s a bedroom scene with “research assistant” Matt and exchanges with Vidal’s long-term partner, Howard Austen (Emilio Doorgasingh). Props also to Syrus Lowe for playing a camp, loquacious James Baldwin: a symbolic angel hanging over Vidal’s shoulder, urging him to do better.
The Last Word:
A drama about political discourse may sound dry, but Best Of Enemies is closer in feel to Ryan Murphy’s Feud (about the relationship between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford).
It also feels extremely relevant today, exploring how TV sacrifices the nuances of political argument in favor of entertainment and confrontation. Vidal rightly predicts that how candidates appear on TV will become more important than their political ideas or arguments (hello, Trump!)
From a queer perspective, it also shows Vidal questioning the camp, quick-witted and barbed persona he developed — like so many gay men — as a form of self-defense. Sometimes one needs more than just the bitchiest put-down in the room when the streets outside are on fire.
Here’s hoping for a U.S. transfer in the not-too-distant future.
Best of Enemies plays at the Noël Coward Theatre in London through February 18, 2023.
abfab
We need more Gore.
bachy
The original documentary Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal, is a must-see! Available to rent or purchase on Google Play, Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, or Vudu. You are able to stream for free on Pluto, Plex, and Tubi.
abfab
Yes, and countless novels, the BOOKS!, interviews and youtube offerings.
abfab
His NYT obit is a good place to start for those who insist on saying WHO?
inbama
For all his Roman Catholic conservatism, every person who worked on Buckley’s talk show “Firing Line” was gay.
KyleMichelSullivan
I remember watching part of the actual face-off on ABC, when I was still in high school. We had just settled in San Antonio and I was way too young to vote, but I caught it by chance. I hated Buckley and his snide “I’m better than you” way of speaking, though Vidal was only marginally better. But Gore Vidal knew how to needle the man, and watching Buckley get irritated then explode when Vidal called him a crypto-nazi was exquisite. In that flash of anger, he showed what a thug he really was.
They published defenses of that moment in some magazine…Time? New Yorker? Esquire?…where Buckley stooped further into pissiness by referencing the rape scene in Vidal’s book, “Myra Breckenridge” as a way of saying Gore had probably raped some guy. I immediately bought a copy of the book and read it through. Felt VERY wicked. (The movie from that book made everything cute.)
I’m glad it’s being mounted, again but I do have an issue with Buckley being played by a black actor. Color-blind casting for “Cinderella” or “The Little Mermaid” or “Bridgerton”? That’s great. But when it changes actual people from history, I go cold. Buckley was the epitome of a condescending, East Coast WASP asshole. David Harewood is a fine actor, but who he is brings a whole different set of politics and social reality into the play, whether they intend to or not, and scrambles its meaning. Not cool.
DennisMpls
Kyle, I was having mixed feelings about the Buckley casting as I read the article, but you’ve convinced me. Indeed, the essence of Buckley was his effete, conceited, East Coast upper class persona. He couldn’t possibly have existed and moved through his utterly privileged world in the 1960s as he did were he a Black man. Therefore, it seems like part of the impact of the play would be mitigated by the casting.