Review: 'The Laramie Project'

This article by Simon Saltzman was prepared for the January 30, 2002 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper.

T he outstanding documentary drama, "The Laramie Project," is getting a first-rate, in-your-face production by the New Jersey Repertory Theater. The play -- a series of dramatic interviews that arose from the horrifying events surrounding the fatal 1998 beating of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, in Laramie, Wyoming -- is recreated by eight excellent actors, each of whom bring a realistic resonance and stirring emotional truth to the compelling text.

"The Laramie Project" imparts no subjective ideology or opinions. What it does do, with confidence and theatrical expertise, is configure the opinions and attitudes of a cross-section of ordinary people, citizens of Laramie , population 26,687, into a riveting and enlightening event.

The young man on a bicycle who discovers Shepard's brutalized body; the sheriff's deputy who arrives on the scene and inadvertently comes in contact the still-breathing, blood-soaked, H.I.V.-infected victim who had been tied to a fence; a lesbian waitress; the bartender who was the last person to see Shepard; and a gay university professor, are just some of the people whose statements and responses to the tragedy define a town and its ethos. Even the positions of the anti-gay preacher and protester, and a more conciliatory Roman Catholic priest, are represented without reproach. Neither Shepard, or the theater student whose parents could not bring themselves to see his performance in "Angels in America ," nor his killers, Russell A. Henderson and Aaron J. McKinney (whose grandmother has her say here) are the main focus. But, they remain foremost as symbols in this exploration into the nature and nurturing of hate.

Members of Moises Kaufman's Tectonic Theater Company (the acting company that brought such powerful journalistic flair to "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde") traveled to Laramie on six different occasions to interview over 200 people, the 60 of whom made it into the text. These are now being played by eight fine actors, members of the New Jersey Repertory Company.

It is hard to draw a line to separate the excellence of the performances from the arresting nature of the text. What matters is that none of the actors betray or condescend to the diverse and idiosyncratic natures of their subjects. This is one of the play's, as well as this production's, distinction, under the direction of Ken Wiesinger.

In the light of the original visits, in the midst of what had become a media frenzy, Tectonic Theater members were able to extract from the guardedly open interviewees what life was, is, and will possibly never be the same again in this corner of America . The present company -- Dana Benningfield, Alberto Bonilla, Lea Eckert, Susan Kerner, Duane Noch, Kendal Ridgeway, David Volin, and Eric Walton -- although not a part of the writing assignment, commands equal awe and admiration for their portrayals.

D esigner Julia Hahn's somber setting, with only a row of wooden chairs, a few hooks for coats, makes a statement appropriately in tone with the openness and directness of the project wherein the actors, often performing multiple roles, are either seated or standing.

After an exposition in which the actors explain their mission and intent, the story unfolds without pretension but with journalistic persistence. We can deduce how the values of old-fashioned homogenous simplicity in this once prime pasture and prairie town has been unsettled by an encroaching world of arts and letters, have and have-nots, outsiders and strangers. Considering that the company has not attempted to embellish or distort the words of the actual people involved, there is a consistent honesty to the text. This honesty, which is occasionally flecked with heart-breaking emotional content, allows us to see the people of Laramie in the light of their own perceptions about normalcy and decency. There is even splashes of humor woven into the interviewees' instinctive distrust of the Project, something not lost by either the original writers or the actors at NJ Rep. If you have not ventured down to see the work of this adventurous four year-old professional company, this is a good time to start.

-- Simon Saltzman