The Laramie Project - Moises Kaufman

Unicorn Theatre, Kansas City
August 24 - September 16

Stages Repertory Theatre, Houston
January 16 - February 10

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The Laramie Project
(2001), Moises Kaufman

Engraved Silver Plated Yo Yo
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    The amazing thing about The Laramie Project, now playing at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, is that almost every word is true. Faithfully transcribed from some 200 hours of interviews, plus police records, court testimony and the occasional impressions of the actor/interviewers, it is really a judicious job of cut-and-paste for dramatic effect. That it could have been cut a little more is its only real flaw. It does go on but with that much material to sift through one can understand author Moises Kaufman and his colleagues in the Tectonic Theatre Project wishing to preserve as much as possible. Doubtless Kaufman, who also penned Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, will do some additional tightening as he prepares the piece for an HBO special now in the works.
    Another astonishment is that it might have been titled “Anytown, USA.” University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was indeed savagely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in Laramie. But, as The Laramie Project unfolds, there is a gradual awareness that this horrible act could have taken place in a whole lot of places where there are wide-open spaces and narrow, closed minds.
    The 1998 tragedy focused the attention of the country – and, indeed, the world – on the subject of hate crimes. It also focused attention, thanks to a media feeding frenzy, on Laramie, pictured as a redneck hotbed of hate, much to the dismay of the good people of that sleepy college town. Many of them – pastors, educators, students, police officers, doctors and just plain decent folks got to have their say into the tape recorders carried by Kaufman and his troupe. The end result is an indictment of the crime but something of a vindication of the town.
    Matt Shepard was slight, well off, educated and openly gay. His burly assailants came from the wrong side of the tracks, lived in trailer homes, worked at KFC and lived what they considered to be a rugged, macho life. Sadly, they were all about the same age, just this side of 20 – still kids. There were many issues in play but homophobia came to the fore as gay rights activists and religious fundamentalists jumped on the bandwagon. The president of the University of Wyoming was the subject of virulent verbal attacks. So was a Catholic priest who organized the first prayer vigil while the victim was still fighting for his life.
     The ten actors – five women and five men – play a multiplicity of roles, all of them well. This is a sterling example of ensemble work. From a homophobic preacher to an emergency room doctor, from the kid who came upon Shepard’s nearly-lifeless body as he was riding past on his bike to the cop who risked AIDS by administering CPR, characters are created in quick, vivid strokes, using their own words. One wouldn’t view this powerful docu-drama as a comedy but there are some very funny moments, many of them delivered by the bartender who served Matthew his last beer and the town taxi driver who once chauffeured him to a gay bar across the Colorado state line. And none sadder than the speech of clemency delivered in the courtroom by the victim’s father, saving one of the assailants from the electric chair.
    Deftly directed by Kaufman, with associate director and “head writer” Leigh Fondakowski, the evening, although lengthy, moves along at a brisk pace, from the opening interviews to the crime itself to the trial and aftermath. Excellent use of graphics: multiple overhead television screens, a film of headlights on a road as Matthew’s abductors drive him to his death, enhance the spare set, furnished with wooden desks and chairs with a stand of grain in the background. There even is a rainstorm at the moment of Matthew’s death. Rather like the one in “Singin’ In the Rain,” except no one is singing here.
    The one character who never speaks or appears is Matthew Shepard himself. But he is constantly present and we feel we know him well. And we weep for him.