Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...But for most contemporary viewers, at this moment, it will be striking how much these arguments remain in the public discourse. One could see that as a sad indication of American stasis when it comes to race or as an inevitable, even a healthy, ongoing debate in a mature capitalist democracy."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...TimeLine is coproducing this show in DePaul University’s Gothic-style Cortelyou Commons, which gives a terrific sense of verisimilitude to the event. We do see some archival footage of the real debate, and students from the Theatre School kick off the proceedings as David Heycock and Jeremy Burford—essentially the Mini-Mes for Baldwin and Buckley, respectively (played at the show I attended by Alex Perez and Jack Baust)."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...Don’t just skim the headlines or read other people’s reviews of this play. Witness the Baldwin vs.
Buckley debate firsthand – and cast your vote in favor or against the proposition: “Is the
American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?”"
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...The audience sits on four sides of the playing area, so that the two debaters are never more than a few feet from any theatergoer. This works especially well when, following the scripted debate, the audience is encouraged to raise questions and discuss some of the points made earlier in the debate. The immersive locale almost becomes another character in this 90-minute production. And, by the way, the proposition debated about the American Dream won with 544 aye votes for Baldwin’s argument to 164 no votes for Buckley."
Buzznews.net - Highly Recommended
"...Now adapted for the stage and directed by Christopher McElroen, audiences can witness the heart of this historic event in the Chicago premiere of american vicarious' "Debate: Baldwin vs. Buckley" at the DePaul University Chicago campus. It's an immersive experience, in the sense it is staged in a former gahtering hall of McCorkick Theological Seminary, with architectural similarities to the Cambridge setting. The show has also run in New York and London prior to its Chicago arrival."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...Under McElroen’s masterful direction, Teagle F. Bougere (Baldwin) and Eric T. Miller (Buckley) are superb. The arguments are delivered verbatim. A charismatic Bougere lays out his evidence with care and determination. He takes his time with effective pauses to underline the facts and build the case. Baldwin is impressive and persuasive, especially with logic understood and accepted by a theatre audience in 2025."
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...Adapter and director Christopher McElroen started developing Debate: Baldwin vs. Buckley after the assassination of George Floyd in 2020 with actors Teagle F. Bougere as Baldwin and Eric T. Miller as Buckley. The production toured the US and UK before coming to DePaul University's Cortelyou Commons, a 1929 Gothic structure, performed in a rectangle surrounded by chairs with the actors wearing tuxedos (costumes by Sally Dolembo and Zach Grasee)."
MaraTapp.org - Highly Recommended
"...Full disclosure: James Baldwin has long been one of my heroes for his brilliance, courage and ability to express himself on the page and verbally. So it was with some trepidation that I went to a reenactment of the famous 1965 debate between Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr., a well-known conservative author and intellectual of the time. I need not have worried."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...A site-specific work, “Debate” succeeds spectacularly in pulling us into that epic confrontation, which was filmed at the time by the BBC and is available online. What it doesn’t accomplish, quite intentionally, is to open up the characters or present their arguments in relation to the human beings making them. As the title tells us, this is indeed a debate, not classic theater. It’s an educational event aimed at the intellect, rather than a story with a plot moving toward climax—just as our society’s own racial tensions are forever debated yet never quite resolved."