The Laramie Project

Synopsis

Wednesday 7th October 1998: Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay college student at the University of Wyoming, was found lashed to a fence in the hills outside Laramie. He had been pistol-whipped, beaten and left barely breathing. Matthew never regained consciousness and died five days later. His attackers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, both Laramie men also in their early twenties, were already in custody. What followed was a worldwide media frenzy. The brutal death of Matthew Shepard forced the American public to address issues long swept under the carpet; Hate Crime and Homophobia. Moises Kauffman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project travelled to Laramie a month later. Over the course of two years they interviewed 200 townspeople and boiled down 400 hours of transcripts into the play involving 79 characters. The Laramie Project gives voice to every aspect about the brutal murder and its environment and asks could this be our town?

Our Review:

25 June 2005

Moises Kaufman's The Laramie Project has arrived just in time for this year's Gay Pride fesitval. It tells a terrible tale of gay-bashing, in a new theatre promising to bring a bit of off-Broadway buzz to London's West End.

New venue, new play? Well, not entirely. An American student production of The Laramie Project, was seen at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002 and had its London premiere at the Cochrane Theatre the following year. This Kit production initiative from Caird Company founders Holly Kendrick and Chris Perkin carries an impressive roster of A-list producers and stars such as Rhys Ifans, Damien Lewis and Sadie Frost.

Based on an horrific real life ‘hate crime' - the torture and murder of a young gay man, Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming - The Laramie Project is one of those pieces that wears its heart on its sleeve with grace if also a certain sentimentality (for a British comparison, se...

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