Terre Haute

by Edmund White

A famous author comes face-to-face with America's most notorious terrorist. One has a story to write,the other has a story to tell. As the clock ticks on Death Row, the bond between the two men grows. Terre Haute is inspired by Gore Vidal's famous essays on Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh. A scorching new play by one of America's greatest living writers, it premiered to critical acclaim at the Edinbrugh Fringe Festival in August 2006, before touring the UK in spring 2007.

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2007

About the author

Edmund Valentine White III was an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer, and essayist. He was the recipient of Lambda Literary's Visionary Award, the National Book Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. France made him Chevalier (and later Officier) de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1993.
White was known as a groundbreaking writer of gay literature and a major influence on gay American literature and has been called "the first major queer novelist to champion a new generation of writers."

Reviews

[Kevin Eggleston · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent idea for a play, but as someone who has been fascinated by the Gore Vidal and Timothy McVeigh dynamic, I was unfortunately disappointed with this end result. There are some great moments, but just when you think it's really going to dive into it, it stays in the shallows. The sexual attraction portion of it didn't quite work, although I see what he was going for. There are some insights into Vidal's sexual habits, however (my favorite being his tendency to have afternoon flings so that in the evening he could focus fully on his friends).

I don't understand why White didn't give a more persuasive argument to the McVeigh character, and instead emphasizes his easily judged over-the-top paranoia and racism. I wish it had delved more deeply into some of the more uncomfortably understandable motivations that initially interested Vidal. It becomes less a dark exploration of where America is on the spectrum of good and evil, and more of a flawed look at Vidal's attraction to evil, which seems less interesting to me. Still, there are some engaging stretches, and I admire the play overall.

[Moomin279 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think where the reporter explains what he's doing after each interview is totally unnecessary and just spoonfeeding the audience, feels like it tries to do too much and doesn't quite get there.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, but very engaging play that almost feels like autofiction, except that it is Edmund White ventrioquizing Gore Vidal and Timothy McVeigh (although they have different names here). The form is maybe a little too much a conventional two-hander, but that could be overcome in performance. (My fantasy production would be a solo turn for a Ventriolquist Vidal, with Vidal and McVeigh dummies). Now I want to re-read the actual Vidal pieces on McVeigh.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

A series of conversations with Timothy McVeigh (aka Harrison) and an elderly expat (James) with radically unsympathetic political views and a smug sexual fetish for ignorant psychopaths . . . what's not to like? As it turns out, nearly everything.