It is a historic debate on racism in the United States, viewed millions of times on the internet: Baldwin against Buckley, held in 1965 and reinterpreted at the Festival d’Avignon by an American company, remains very topical. The face-to-face between these two intellectuals, the African-American writer James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, Jr., a figure of American conservatism, took place at the friendly of the University of Cambridge, in front of an audience of British students.
Nearly 60 years later, a New York-based experimental theater company, Elevator Repair Service, resurrects, almost verbatim for an hour, this debate that was titled, “Does the American Dream Only Exist? ‘at the expense of the American Negro?’. “When I watched the debate, I was shocked to discover how the issues raised were as relevant today as they were yesterday,” says actor Greig Sargeant, who plays Baldwin and which is behind this performance.
In the gymnasium of the Frédéric Mistral high school, two desks face each other, surrounded by the public. The lights are projected as much on the spectators as on the performers. Baldwin, whose speech received standing ovations from students, dissects with startling eloquence “structural racism” in the United States. “It is a great shock to discover that the country which is your birthplace, and to which you owe your life and your identity, has not made sure that there is a place for you in its system” , says the writer who died in 1987.
The intellectual, who in one of his writings recounted being beaten by the police when he was only 10 years old, experienced renewed interest after the death of George Floyd in May 2020 in Minneapolis during his arraignment. White policeman Derek Chauvin had asphyxiated him by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes. His agony, filmed by a passerby and posted online, sparked huge protests in the United States and around the world.
For Greig Sargeant, racism remains “endemic” in the United States. “We have problems with the health system, with the vote. Black men are being killed just for being black and white supremacism is showing its ugly face,” he said. Opposite, Buckley, just as eloquent, tries to deconstruct Baldwin’s speech, believing that his “accusations against our civilization are unjustified”.
“There is no miracle cure for the racial problem in America,” he said. “America must not under any circumstances be told that the only alternative is to overthrow this civilization, which in our eyes is none other than the faith of our fathers, the faith of your fathers”, insists the intellectual. “It’s a challenge to listen to Buckley’s point of view. It resonates so much with today’s debates, ”comments John Collins, co-founder of the company which is performing for the first time in Avignon. “The reason why this debate is timeless is that we can’t agree on history,” he adds.
He considers that, despite the historical differences, the face-to-face can have a resonance in France, also crossed by its own debate on racism and recently shaken by riots following the death of the young Nahel. The company Elevator Repair Service is known in particular for having unrolled for eight hours the entire Gatsby the Magnificent in a kind of theatrical reading. Why did she want to recreate on stage the “Baldwin versus Buckley” debate, recorded by the BBC and available on the internet? “If you watch the debate on YouTube, you’re a bit disconnected. In the theatre, we speak directly to the public as if they were Cambridge students, there is an immediacy,” explains John Collins. And, above all, “it is important to continue the conversation”, he assures.
