Produced & Directed by Sue Zizza with music by Yale Strom.
American labor leader Eugene V. Debs gave a speech in June of 1918 to a movement rally in which he condemned US involvement in the First World War. Debs was jailed for sedition and went on to run for president from his cell. This historical fiction by Schwartz and Strom explores what Debs' life might have been in the months leading up to this seminal moment of American history.
On principle I should not be posting this play because it uses real people and real events in a drama. That can be done well but it seldom is done both well and responsibly. Though I will admit, I enjoyed listening to it.
This play shows how dishonest and dangerous it is to refuse to distinguish between allowing people to tell the truth and allowing people to lie with impunity, especially with a political and power purpose. It also proves the futility of unrealistic politics and retaining myths and affection for former idealism that has turned out to not work. This period has produced some of the best as well as some of the worst of futile leftism that quickly turned into a game of lazy idiots who didn't care if nothing happened, largely because they were already affluent. I am of two minds as to whether or not this play is good in a political sense, though it is worth listening to, especially if you think critically about it and read the actual history that it references.
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