OnstageScotland.co.uk
Shona Craven
9 August 2006

What is it with men on Death Row? If they're not being sent love letters by besotted housewives, they're shooting the breeze in their cells with famous American writers.

Edmund White's compelling new play imagines Gore Vidal following in the footsteps of Capote and Mailer to visit Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh during his final days.

In reality the pair never met, but Vidal incurred the wrath of the US public by defending the Gulf War veteran in print as a man "with an exaggerated sense of justice", prompting one prominent (and also gay) political writer to ask "why Gore Vidal has such a crush on Timothy McVeigh".

So was Vidal driven by a desire to get under the skin of a killer? Or a desire, however futile, to get under his clothes? In this hour-long two-hander the names have been changed but the most important detail - 168 innocent people killed in a domestic terrorist bombing - echoes throughout. The opening scene sparkles with wit and warmth, but a shift in tone is inevitable as the days go by and the hard facts can be avoided for no longer.

Peter Eyre gives a superb performance as the septuagenarian writer, who charms and flatters his way into his subject's confidence. Arthur Darvill, who bears considerable resemblance to McVeigh, is impressive physically but never quite convinces as native of New York State.

The writer's motive for visiting isn't entirely clear - in reality, Vidal would have put himself in considerable danger by doing so. The young man asks if he's researching a biography, but three days before execution would seem a little late for that. Instead, the pair talk politics, literature and sex as if they are student and professor, with the writer filling in gaps and making gentle corrections.

But by the end of their second meeting, only one topic remains undiscussed: 168 dead men, women and children. The one fact that no understanding mentor, however sympathetic, could ever overlook.

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