Homicidal boys-next-door might not be your cup-of-tea. And maybe arthritic bisexual
political-analysts aren't your type. But
playwright Edmund White ties this decadent pair into one of the most
exceptionally-performed small-theatre dramas in San Francisco this year.
The New Conservatory Theatre
Center keeps the adrenaline pumping
with the US premiere of
White's Terre Haute, a two-man show first
developed at the Sundance Institute 2006.
Based on an imagined conversation between notorious Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, and
notable writer Gore Vidal, the 80-minute play is gripping and brilliantly
steered by two talented actors.
White's controversial script isn't loaded with exposition or
force-fed morals. Instead Terre
Haute is functionally divided into four 20-minute
interview segments between James (the Vidal) and Harrison (the McVeigh),
interspersed with brief asides. What we discover is not sympathy for Harrison, but a
surprising attempt at understanding the mind of a terrorist; something we may never
have wanted to consider or learn.
John Hutchinson, with a head of wispy white hair and wobbly
knees, is commanding as James. Leaning
on his cane and toting a tape-recorder, we find him to be quite amiable and
trusting; comfortable in the shoes he fills as a pushy and curious research
journalist. A mix of hoity-toity and
intellectual snobbery, his age also brings a gentle self-awareness and ease at
conversation.
"I want him to tell me all about the bombing," says James
before meeting Harrison in
solitary-confinement, "All the details.
Something he hasn't told anyone.
I want him to like me."
James enters the space, and when the lights come up, we find
ourselves flush against the prison's linoleum floor, breaths away from the action. Intricately woven fishing-wire gives the
illusion of safety glass while a solo cello hums quietly into silence. In the 6-x-12-foot "cage" is Harrison, portrayed by the adept Elias Escobedo. His piercing brown eyes and sharp features
are riveting as he paces, clad only in dirty slip-on shoes and a khaki
jumpsuit. He barks his first few lines
like a faulty spark-plug.
"There is something dangerous about meeting one's pen-pal,"
says James, who had started a written-relationship with Harrison
beforehand. Now that they meet face to
face, James is unashamed in his curiosity.
He drills questions like an expert dart-thrower…from praise to insult to
humiliation to concession. White's play
constructs James into a master-interviewer, rousing and taming Harrison minute-by-minute.
Harrison is four days away
from execution and desperate to have his say.
But each question James brings to the table unearths another telling
clue into the mind of a murderer (and into the mind of the interviewer). James confides that Harrison
reminds him of an old fling he had in the army.
Despite Harrison's anxiety and violent
outbursts, James is allured by his foolishness and his looks. Escobedo's veiny arms and buzzed hair are a
turn-on. But his character's lack of
remorse for the death of innocent children (what he deems "collateral damage")
is just as much a turn-off.
Through a series of proverbial orgasms, James and Harrison
meet eye-to-eye in bashing the American government. Both are disgusted by invasions of privacy,
censorship, dirty politicians and the FBI.
Both are outraged by the events of Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas. Only James didn't blow up a
building…something he feels Harrison wouldn't
have resorted to had he only been "properly stimulated intellectually."
Harrison later explains
that he "learned his lessons from the government" and feels he is "booed" for
doing the same thing service-men are applauded for doing overseas – killing the
enemy. Harrison's
tunnel-vision would make anyone's blood-pressure rise, but our yearning to know
how he did it keeps us enthralled.
But James is not without his faults, as we learn later in a
heated Scene 3. He is depressed by his age
and boredom. Having toyed with the
subject of sexuality at the beginning of the interview, he is not reluctant to
confess he has bought love from men for much of his life. With the protection of the glass between
them, James can fondle expressions like "young, dumb and full of cum" to get a
rise from his subject.
The pay-off of course lies in an emotion-laden final
sequence where Escobedo brings a hush over the crowd, detailing the entire
events of April 19, 1995. James has
gotten what he needed: the facts. And
yet he is still itching with questions of remorse… and sex. What we witness next is a beautifully
uncomfortable and teary-eyed revelation.
