"The Laramie Project" sends tears to the eyes and chills up the spine.
The haunting play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project honors the memory of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard, who died in 1998. The play is a documentary on stage, with a troupe of actors portraying both the interviewers, who are members of the Tectonic Theater Project, and their interviewees.
The theater company spent a year in Laramie, Wyo., where Shepard, a young gay man, was savagely beaten to death. They conducted over 200 interviews, telling the stories of Shepard's family, friends, classmates and teachers, as well as community members he never knew.
The show is an auditory experience, focusing more on the voices of everyone involved with the tragic event rather than any visual presentations. While there are reenactments of actual events, most of the play consists of intimate testimonial monologues recorded during interviews.
The retelling of Shepard's story preserves significant memories and reminds audience members about an event that becomes easier to forget with each passing news cycle. No one in Production Workshop's downstairs space can walk out of the theater without feeling ill over the horror of hate crimes. Still, the play is not one-sided - in the tradition of nonfiction, it tries to present every possible perspective, even that of those who murdered Shepard.
Although it may be an unorthodox and extreme practice, absolutely every member of this show's cast must be mentioned with admiration and respect. So here they are - Georgia Cohen '04.5, Ross Cowan '07, Debbie Friedman '05, Teddy Goldsmith '05, Jonathan Harris '07, Jessica Laser '08, Caitlin Marshall '05, Michelle Oing '07, Allison Jill Posner '05, Elliot Quick '07 and Josh Shulruff '04.5.
Every actor portrays multiple roles with ease and skill, creating distinct characters with trademark mannerisms. Bombarded by all the names tossed around throughout the play, an audience member can easily get confused, but, to the cast's credit, minimal additions such as glasses, jackets and new hairstyles are enough to make character shifts clear.
The centerpiece of the show's set is a crude fence constructed out of wooden planks, a symbol of the fence to which Shepard's attackers tied him and where he was later found. The lighting is sparingly yet powerfully implemented, particularly when blinding the actors with harsh white lights to illustrate how the media flooded Laramie after Shepard's death.
Director Michael Perlman '05 excels by letting the words of "The Laramie Project" speak for themselves. He chooses a simplistic approach rather than ruining the play or distracting the audience from it with unnecessary production tricks. The choice to have the actors sing during the delivery of certain lines is also brilliant - the combination of song and speech inspires goose bumps.
Perlman also effectively brings the play's political, intellectual and social implications close to home by mentioning Brown, leaving the audience to ponder serious and significant questions.
