Legal Commentary

Nerds? Night Out: ?The Rivalry? at Ford?s Theatre

By John Elwood

Last night I went to see ?The Rivalry? at Ford?s Theatre, Norman Corwin?s 1958 play dramatizing the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and written on the occasion of their centennial.

Going into it, I thought two full hours of a play based on a political debate would be a bit much. But I, and the other three nerds I went with, found it quite engrossing. Some of the acting (mostly at the end of a couple scenes, to end them on a climax) was a tad over-the-top, but overall, I thought the performances were very solid, and it made for a very enjoyable evening. It?s also a great opportunity to see seven debates? worth of great rhetoric boiled down into a tidy two-hour package.  Perhaps predictably (they?re a fairly theater-going lot), I saw one of the Justices (and spouse) there.

The play runs until February 14. Schedule here.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on January 27, 2010 (boomark / email).