Best of Enemies, Noel Coward Theatre, review: Explosively good, but Zachary Quinto lacks Gore Vidal’s charm
Best of Enemies, Noel Coward Theatre, review: This energetic reimagining of some of the first televised political debates of the 1960s has a shocking contemporary relevance, is addictively fast-paced and has some incredible performances
The names Gore Vidal and William Buckley would be sinking into the pit of history by now, had it not been for Best of Enemies. A razor-sharp play by James Graham that premiered at the Young Vic in 2021, the piece dramatises the snarky televised debates between Vidal and Buckley of the sixties to make points about political polarisation and cancel culture today. The starkest and most effective point Graham is making is how little things have changed since 1968 in terms of media sensationalism.
Progressive Vidal and right-wing conservative Buckley’s debates were historic. They were some of the first of the combative on air slagging matches we’re so used to today from the likes of Piers Morgan. Two of the prominent intellectuals of the day, they would meet on air and rip each other to shreds while America watched at home. “Mr Buckley is always on the right and almost always in the wrong,” Vidal once quipped, a smirking Buckley sat opposite him.
Graham’s play, directed by Jeremy Herrin most recently of A Glass Menagerie, brings the drab sixties TV studio of the debates to life with a gleaming set that feels expansive. With Best of Enemies, Tammy Faye writer Graham also favours maximalism in the writing. Rather than simply hamming up the drama of the debates, there is a sizable supporting cast playing Vietnam War protestors, ageing TV execs and love interests to contextualise the topics the men debate. Graham does a decent job of tidying it all into one story, making things fast-paced, with constant scene changes that are compelling, but the result of all the rushing around is that sometimes the debates can feel less tense than the glue that frames them.
It’s all reliant on the two main men, and Homeland actor David Harewood gives a powerful performance as Buckley. Returning to the role he premiered last year, his interpretation is so ferocious it sometimes feels as if he’d rather spit his lines, and there’s obvious power in watching a Black man playing a White guy with a racist tongue. Star Trek actor and Hollywood star Zachary Quinto makes his West End debut as Vidal, but doesn’t quite find his charm. He gives a confident performance, but Quinto’s Vidal is steelier than the man himself, lending him an energy that feels too close to Buckley’s character and doesn’t convey the warmth of the American writer. I think it’s this similarity that can dilute the potency of some elements of the dialogue when the two are on stage alone.
Still, it’s all so stimulating that we are buoyed along by Graham’s arguments, which posit ideas about the nuclear family, war, immigration and an iteration of cancel culture before the term existed. It all feels thrillingly present.
Best of Enemies is hardly breaking the mould: it’s another play in homage to legendary seventies film and stage play Network that criticises the media and its ability to send corrupt messages. But let’s face it, with fear about Trump rife as we wonder if he’ll set Twitter alight once again and belief in the Conservative party at a record low, there is a stronger need for shows about political accountability now more than ever.
Best of Enemies, Noel Coward Theatre, plays until 18 February and tickets are available
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