This year, Brandon is celebrating the 200th birthday of their native son Stephen Douglas. As part of the town’s Independence Day celebrations, they’ve invited two former governors to star in a play about the famous debates between Douglas and his political rival Abraham Lincoln.
The play takes audiences back to 1858, when the nation was sliding toward civil war and the U.S. Senate race in Illinois was heating up. Abraham Lincoln, a relative newcomer at the time, was trying to unseat the powerful incumbent Stephen Douglas. Their debates have become the stuff of legend.
A century later, Norman Corlin wrote a Broadway play about those debates called The Rivalry. On Saturday afternoon, the Brandon Town Hall Theater will present a condensed 50-minute stage reading of the play starring former governors Madeleine Kunin and Jim Douglas and retired Brandon educator John Dilts.
Douglas says, “When the historical society approached me initially they said, ‘well you can have any part you want.’ It didn’t take me long,” says Douglas, “to rule out playing Mrs. Douglas. But then I thought if the other male performer is shorter than I then I can play Lincoln. But,” adds Douglas, “John Dilts is taller than I am and he has a top hat - so I guess I get to play my namesake forbearer.”
Jim Douglas will play Stephen Douglas and Madeleine Kunin will play his wife Adele.
“She’s a very different character than I am,” says Kunin. “I get a kick out of some of her lines. They’re pretty submissive, and you know, the sweet little wife.” “But,” Kunin adds, “it’s a lot of fun to play it because we all kind of get into the spirit of the time.”
A time when political debates lasted for three hours and large crowds gathered to listen and mull over the deeply divisive issues of the day.
Director Dennis Marden says that while Lincoln and Douglas are the focus of the play, Adele’s role as narrator is equally important. “She comes out on stage and opens the play, says Marden. “She tells some of the things that happened during the whole debate time and she’ll say, ‘you know we went from here to here, Stephen did this and did that.’ “And then Lincoln would come out and Stephen would come out to the two podiums and do their thing.” Marden goes on, “so she’s really the guiding light.”
Marden says that while the actors will be reading from scripts, they’ll be in costume and will move around the stage. He says they’ve also built a set and will incorporate lighting to help bring the famous political rivalry to life.
It’s a rivalry Madeleine Kunin says modern politicians could learn from. “Even though they debated each other fiercely and competed fiercely,” she says, “in the end they worked together - both in their own way fighting to save the union.”
The Rivalry - a 50-minute stage reading will be performed Saturday at 3:30pm at the Brandon Town Hall Theater. Tickets are $10 for adults - kids are free.
