The characters of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will engage in a spirited debate during a dramatic performance Thursday, Jan. 15, sponsored by UC Davis to mark the upcoming Martin Luther King Day. "The Meeting," to be performed by MX Productions of Oakland, is being presented by the African Continuum, Alpha Phi Alpha, and the Cross Cultural Center at UC Davis. Admission is free, and some tickets have been set aside for high-school students. The event begins at 7 p.m. at the Varsity Theatre in Davis. The play is set in a Harlem hotel before Malcolm X, the black nationalist leader, appeared at the rally where he was assassinated in 1965. Malcolm X and King meet secretly to discuss their different approaches to improving the lot of black people. Arm wrestling during their meeting symbolizes the conflicting ideas of the two men -- Malcolm X who pressed for black separatism and advocated the use of violence in self-defense, and King, who galvanized the civil rights movement based on the principle of non-violence.