Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Although William F. Buckley Jr. himself is gone, This House Believes reminds us that the history he didn't completely understand is still with us and that, in many ways, so is he. And so we still need Baldwin to remind us. "I am stating very seriously," he told his audience in Cambridge, and tells us now, "and this is not an overstatement: I picked the cotton, I carried it to the market, and I built the railroads under someone else's whip for nothing. For nothing. The Southern oligarchy, which has still today so very much power in Washington, and therefore some power in the world, was created by my labor and my sweat, and the violation of my women and the murder of my children. This, in the land of the free, and the home of the brave. And no one can challenge that statement. It is a matter of historical record.""
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...With free admission as "public access" theater, THIS HOUSE BELIEVES is now a 70-minute, town-hall recreation of that prescient polemical confrontation, currently playing at the theater's Lakeview venue (collaborating with the Chicago Park District, it already ran at Theater on the Lake, the Washington Park Refectory and the Austin Town Hall). At each performance audience members will be able to vote for or against the declaration, both before and at the end of the great debate. Marking the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, the 150th anniversary of the 13th Amendment, the 50th anniversary of The Voting Rights Act, and the 50th anniversary of the Baldwin/Buckley debate itself, this blast from the past seems particularly appropriate, considering how damn little has changed."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...This House Believes... is a re-enactment of a debate at Cambridge University in 1965 between essayist and civil rights activist James Baldwin and founder of Movement Conservatism William F. Buckley on the subject "Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?" Adapter Zachary Baker-Salmon's use of the yes side's resolution as the title clearly establishes the answer to that question, not that there was any chance of it being controversial among Oracle's audience. The performance-I'm not sure whether to call it a play-was previously performed with Theater on the Lake on the south and west sides, and I imagine was crafted with those other audiences in mind."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Somewhat Recommended
"...Given the current social and political climates in this country, I completely understand why Oracle-an organization devoted to bringing free theatre to the Chicago community-decided to conceive and produce this play. Throughout the play there are points made, phrases said, and stories told that hit home with what people are still dealing with 50 years later. But, if the goal is to change minds, the presentation doesn't serve that purpose. The play lacks the focus and organization to truly grab its audience and force them to look inside themselves and really think about whether or not they honestly support the titular statement."