AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

There's a stranger than fiction quality to the correspondence between essayist, novelist and playwright Gore Vidal and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. What on earth could a man who has attempted, repeatedly, to change the world with words have in common with a man whose only recourse for protest is murderous violence? Noted author Edmund White attempts to answer this question in the ultimately disappointing Terre Haute, a play that focuses on James (Peter Eyre), a writer not unlike Vidal, who travels from his home in Paris to Terre Haute IN to visit Harrison (Nick Westrate), a man sentenced to the death penalty for having bombed a building in Oklahoma City.

What begins as an unlikely meeting of minds in White's play soon turns homoerotic as the two men talk in the prison (scenic designer Hannah Clark provides an effective design for the glass-cased cell in which Harrison is confined for the interviews). Although James does not approve of Harrison's methods for expressing his opposition to the U.S. government and particularly such events as the raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX, James does feel that Harrison's opinions have merit. The fact that erudite and traveled James and the less-educated Harrison might have anything in common makes for fascinating drama, and when they're discussing politics and Harrison's views, White's play crackles.

Unfortunately, as the play, directed with sensitivity and an eye for detail by George Perrin, progresses, James' attraction to Harrison and Harrison's curiosity about his interviewer's sexuality increasingly becomes part of their conversations, first leading to an explosive confrontation and later a literal and metaphorical baring of Harrison's soul.

Both Eyre and Westrate turn in terrific performances in Terre Haute, both delivering nuanced portraits. What's most interesting about the actors' work is that they make it abundantly clear why these two men are intellectual and emotional soul mates of sorts, men who have chosen to live their solitary lives by their own rules.

Was the correspondence between Vidal and McVeigh influenced by the former's gayness or the latter's curiosity about it? Like playwright White, I've not read the letters, so I couldn't answer the question. I suppose that questions of sex may have played some part in it, but like the most successful parts of Terre Haute, my bet is that the answer lies somewhere else, a place that's a little less sensational.

---- Andy Propst

Terre Haute continues through February 15 at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street). Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 8:15pm; Saturday at 2:15 and 8:15pm and Sunday at 3:15pm. Tickets are $35.00 and can be purchased by calling 212-279-4200. Further information is available online at www.59e59.org.