James Graham’s new play, based on the TV debates ahead of the 1968 presidential election, has opened at the Young Vic, directed by Jeremy Herrin. We’ll get this out of the way first: Best of Enemies has an awful lot of exposition, to the extent that it almost gets completely bogged down in context during the first half-hour.
Much of it is helpful, especially for those unfamiliar with the events leading up to the 1968 presidential election, but it’s such a slow burn that we began wondering whether we’d get to the good bits.
Yes, we have a cameo from Aretha Franklin and an amusing snapshot of Andy Warhol being annoying at a party, but we thought the first segment of the play could have done with some editing.