Kunstler post-show Q&A at White Bear Theatre

Kunstler post-show Q&A at White Bear Theatre

The timing of this overdue European premiere of Jeffrey Sweet’s 2013 biographical play about the American civil rights lawyer William Kunstler (1919-1995), best known for his defence of Vietnam War protestors in the 1960s, is remarkable.

Kunstler was a graduate of the law school of New York’s Columbia University, where the current wave of student protests over the war in Gaza first erupted and where the drama is set… on a day of protests. There’s even a line in the script that says that on ‘this campus, in 1968, students seized the buildings to protest the university’s involvement in the war.’

History may never exactly repeat itself, but the echoes are resounding. And there are many others in this play that resonate equally strongly around rights, freedoms the long fight for justice.

Kunstler is set in 1995 and centres around the lawyer (Jeff McCarthy in a role originally written for him) giving a lecture about his career and “greatest hits” cases, occasionally sparring with Kerry, the bright young law student who introduces him.

It’s an 80-minute masterclass of acting as well as due process and late 20th-century American history. You learn a lot about the Freedom Riders, the Chicago Seven, the Central Park Five and many other courtroom battles (and, if you’re anything like me, you’ll go home to Google and learn even more).

After the opening night performance, in the first of a series of post-show events, I delved more into the play, its inspiration and implications, with author Jeffrey Sweet and actors Jeff McCarthy and Nykila Norman, who have all travelled from New York with the production. We also celebrated Sweet’s birthday. Happy birthday!

Kunstler runs at London’s White Bear Theatre until 18 May 2024.

Q&A video

Q&A photos

Thanks to Eileen Goodway.

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