I live in Whittier, Ca., which is a suburb of Los Angeles. But next week, joined by my lovely wife, we will be driving to San Diego to see a play based on the Lincoln Douglas Debates at the Lamb’s Player Theater. The play, The Rivlary, is a three actor stage play that include the characters of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, and Adele Douglas.
Having studied under a Lincoln scholar at CSUF, I’m always eager to attend anything that has to do with Lincoln and the Civil War; indeed, that is one reason I chose the era as my area of specialty. Furthermore, out here in the West trying to find anything Civil War or Lincoln to see is like trying to find water in the Mojave Desert.
The tickets are cheap, and it looks to be a good time. As a historian, and even more, as a Lincoln historian, I no doubt will find mistakes, and hopefully like a film based on historical events, I will not judge it so harshly. I’m also not a big fan of “theater,” but I think the subject is better suited for people like myself.
Anyhow, if you’re in California and perhaps would like to see it with us, e-mail me aayepiz@yahoo.com.
Best Wishes,
Alex
I would have loved the opportunity to watch a Lincoln Douglas debate. From what I have read they were exiting whoever came out first to speak was introduced by a parade of followers. For Lincoln a group of men carrying an axe and a rail that they said old Honest Abe split. For Douglas a parade of officials all carrying banners. One banner I saw in a book was a tall slender white man in a top hat standing next to a black woman with a child in front of them. Lincoln usually started with an off colored anecdote. Douglas would take off his jacket, tie and immediately work u a sweat. Douglas’s strategy was to portray Lincoln as a hard core abolitionist who believed Negroes were the equal of white people. There was the one speech where Lincoln asked Douglas to resolve his belief in popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. That question gave Douglas a pause. If he stated his popular sovereignty was a law stronger then Dred Scott he would lose votes in the south . If he took the other side he would lose votes in the North. By asking this question Lincoln the consummate politician split the democratic vote. Douglas ran on the Northern Democratic Ticket. This allowed for a Lincoln victory.