The Vincent Dowling Theatre Company is delighted to come to the wonderful Emelin Theatre to perform The Rivalry, a riveting drama about the momentous Lincoln-Douglas debates. Recently playing off-Broadway to packed houses, we are just beginning a Fall tour. Audiences love this play; the critics wrote superb reviews of the run in New York City; and we are excited to bring it to Westchester audiences.

Vincent Dowling, founding producer and director, decided to revive The Rivalry last fall. Vincent Dowling is a Lifetime Associate Director of the Abbey Theatre Dublin and an Emmy award-winning producer. His passionate belief is that every American needs to see this play as soon as possible. He has said that "...from the moment I laid the play down, I knew I had to do it. I had to do everything in my power to give everyone who understand English and who cares about democracy, from age 12 to 112, a chance to see it." The themes in the play resonate deeply today: human rights, integrity, passionate conviction, the idea that politics matters.

Here is insight into how the actors' see their roles.

For Christian Kauffmann, playing Lincoln in The Rivalry is the role of his career. He feels that The Rivalry resonates today because of the enduring questions it asks: Is it right or wrong to trample on the rights of others? As a people, do we have a right to do this? Christian hopes this play continues to have life for a long time. He feels that it is a great opportunity, an important piece of writing and a meaningful contribution to American thought.



What the critics have to say about Christian Kauffmann's performance: "So why not just stay home and read the transcripts?" asks Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal in his recent review of this production. "Because, among other things, you'll be depriving yourself of the chance to see Mr. Kauffmann impersonate Lincoln...Unlike the secular saint portrayed by Henry Fonda in John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Kauffmann's Lincoln is recognizably human, and even when he's flinging great shafts of rhetoric across the platform he still seems like a small-town lawyer who has been ennobled by fate." Diana Barth of the Epoch Times simply says in her review: "In fact, the Lincoln of Christian Kauffmann is spellbinding. His resemblance to the late president is uncanny, while his presentation of what we know of Lincoln appears to be dead-on accurate."

Peter Cormican plays the role of Stephen A. Douglas. He says that over the course of the last twenty years he has played quite a number of roles large and small - nevertheless, so far in his career, he says no role has been more satisfying than playing Douglas. To Peter, what made Douglas so outstanding was his mastery of the English language, his vast ability to learn from a young age, a gift for oratory, and a keen sense of human understanding, his racism and race baiting notwithstanding.



As she prepared for her role in The Rivalry as Adele Douglas, Mary Linda Rapelye was greatly impressed by Adele's wisdom at such a young age. Mary Linda has continued to research the history of Rose Adele Cutts Douglas in order to speak her experiences in as truthful and heartfelt a manner as possible. About the play Mary Linda says that The Rivalry reminds us of the values on which our country was founded and that those values still need perfecting. She points out that Norman Corwin, the playwright, has intricately woven all of the salient points of the debates into a find dramatic piece. To tie these points together, he uses the wonderful narration of Adele who witnessed the debates first hand.



By Nancy J. Phillips
Co-Producer The Rivalry
The Vincent Dowling Theatre Company
October 27, 2009
Larchmont, NY

More information and reference material:

Guelzo, Allen G. (2008). Lincoln and Douglas - The Debate That Defined America. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Terms from The Rivalry

Reviews:
The New York Times
Wall Street Journal
New York Post