Theatre Guide London
Gerald Berkowitz

At one time author Gore Vidal considered visiting Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in prison, much as Truman Capote had done with his murderers three decades earlier. The visits never took place, but Edmund White has written this two-hander imagining them. The Vidal figure, who sympathises with many of the prisoner's criticisms of the American government, if not his methods, is torn between respect for his innate intelligence and abhorrence of his ignorance and prejudices, a dilemma complicated by the young man's attractiveness. The prisoner is fascinated by this patrician and repelled by his sexuality, driven by the need to have his story told but paranoid about being misrepresented. The play never falls into the trap of excusing the prisoner's crime, but White not only makes both characters believable but takes them both on emotional journeys, the writer acknowledging the degree to which his objectivity has been compromised by desire and the boy facing frightening things about his own sexuality. Under George Perrin's direction Peter Eyre captures the essence of Vidal without attempting a crude impersonation, while Arthur Darvill makes us see what potential is being lost in the prisoner's blinkered view of reality - and both give strikingly generous performances, feeding and supporting each other in a moving and thought-provoking hour.

Read this review on the Theatre Guide London website.