The Laramie Project
Holden Street Theatres, Fri 22 Oct
Long term Adelaide residents
will immediately recognise the eerie similarity between the Laramie Project and
our own equivalent moment of shame when Adelaide University Law Lecturer George
Duncan was drowned in the Torrens in 1972. In 1998 a young gay man was brutally
bashed and left to die outside the town of Laramie, Wyoming. “The skies are so
blue here.” “It’s such a great community.”
“People are happy to live here.” “Here we let people live and let live.”
“We don’t raise our children like that around here.” The people of Laramie
struggled to accept that one of their own could be responsible for this
appalling crime.
The Laramie Project is based on material gathered by a New
York based Theatre group from 200 interviews with the people of Laramie. It’s
an ingenious way to gather the raw material for a play and it works
brilliantly. Each member of the wonderful cast takes on multiple roles of the
townspeople: friends, barman, parents, staff and students from the local
university, church figures, police, and doctors in a fast-moving parade of
opinions and facts that essentially casts the audience in the role of jurors.
The first act does an excellent job of helping us get to
know the victim, Matthew Shepard, and gives the audience an opportunity to
establish their own personal connection with him. We learn that Matthew was a
good guy and was universally liked throughout the town. The second act deals
with the crime itself and the town’s subsequent shock and disbelief. A media
circus invades the town and contributes to a shift in attitude in some of the
locals. Sympathy gives way to cynicism and confusion: so we’re the centre of
mass media attention because Matthew was gay? Was his life more important than
that of a local cop who died around the same time?
Laramie clerics start using Matthew’s story to instruct
their parishes. The Catholic priest wonders if the town should be grateful to
Matthew for helping the town realise that hate and intolerance exist in Laramie
and need to be addressed. The Baptist Pastor, Fred Phelps, took to campaigning
against homosexuality. Invoking the authority of the Bible he insinuates that
Matthew’s gay lifestyle had brought this upon himself. The final act deals with
the court hearings, the ever-increasing debate around hate crimes and the rise
of the Angel Action protest movement to counter the rantings of the likes of
Fred Phelps. The courtroom apology of one of the perpetrators to Matthew’s
parents was really moving, and the electronic candlelight vigil was a nice
touch.
This is really fine theatre. The first-hand accounts of the
townspeople lend authenticity and the cast really do a great job at managing
multiple roles and costume changes and for once the American accents ALL
sounded authentic – to my Australian ear anyway! I found the tendency to
perhaps eke out more emotion from the situation than was warranted in the way
that American dramas are wont to do a little bothersome but that’s the way the
play is written, and not the fault of the cast.
George Duncan’s death here in 1972 led to South Australia becoming the first state in Australia to decriminalise homosexuality. Despite the worldwide media attention, sadly not one piece of legislation has ever been passed in Wyoming to address the kind of prejudicial hatred that resulted in the death of Matthew Shepard.
(This review also published on The Clothesline.)
