THEATRE
William Cook
Best of enemies
Noel Coward Theatre, London, until 18th February
Are there any oldies who saw the fiery TV debates between Gore Vidal and William F Buckley Junior, when they were first broadcast in America in 1968? Nowadays the footage is all over the internet but until YouTube came along, they were difficult to track down. How fresh they are, even after all these years. This gripping play takes us behind the scenes of Vidal and Buckley’s verbal battles. It reveals why these programmes were so important then, and why they remain so significant today. On the face of it, it seems like a stodgy subject for the stage: two middle-aged American men arguing about politics, in a series of sit-down talkathons that were televised 55 years ago. But James Graham’s erudite script finds drama and humour in every scene. Graham’s play is inspired by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon’s 2015 documentary of the same name. Yet this show is...
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