Terre Haute -TNT

Inspired by American essayist Gore Vidal's correspondence with — and support of — the Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh, author Edmund White has imagined a series of conversations between two people (very much like, but not identical to, the originals) conducted during the last days of the mass murderer's life. During these brief encounters, the septuagenarian journalist tries to elicit exactly what was going on in the mind of the intelligent ex-soldier with a fine army record who deliberately cut short the lives of 168 people, including 19 children. Enclosed by wire mesh walls, recent drama school graduate Arthur Darvill is increasingly persuasive as Harrison, stubbornly maintaining that he had to make a stand against the government. And Peter Eyre gives a thoughtful, controlled performance as the cultured elderly writer whose own life is heading, more slowly, towards its end and who finds himself reluctantly attracted to the unrepentant, home-grown, death row terrorist.
Trafalgar Studios 2, Whitehall, SW1, 0870 060 6632. Until June 2

LOUISE KINGSLEY