Stage Review - The Laramie Project (Lakewood Playhouse)

Stage Review - The Laramie Project
Presented By: Lakewood Playhouse - Lakewood, WA
Show Run: February 21 - March 09, 2025
Date Reviewed: Sunday, February 23, 2025 (Opening Weekend)
Run Time: 2 Hours, 40 minutes (including 15 minute intermission, and a 5 minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman

I’m still thinking about whether I’ve done The Laramie Project backwards or not. Last season, I took in the Dukesbay Theatre production of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, not having known much about The Laramie Project itself. If you’re not familiar with The Laramie Project, it’s a play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project, in which the group visits Laramie, Wyoming to meet with citizens of the town to gather information in order to produce a play that centers on the murder of Matthew Shepard and the town’s reaction to the homicide that was denounced as a hate crime in 1998. The idea behind the project was to gather information by interviewing townspeople, those who knew Matthew, who was brutally beaten and killed by two other young Laramie boys, ostensibly for being gay, to produce a play that will get to the bottom of how something as tragic as this murder could have happened in what is otherwise a quiet town. The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later follows the same process, but acts as a follow-up, to see the long term impact of the event that defined the town for so long, to see if people’s attitudes had changed over that time, and to see the lasting effects that murder had on the town. It’s logical to think that one should see The Laramie Project before “Ten Years Later”, but there is an argument for taking in the sequel first, like knowing how a challenging situation turns out should (repeat, “should”) lessen the stress of watching the situation unfold.. In any case, when I entered Lakewood Playhouse this past Sunday, that was my situation, having seen the sequel prior to the original, which is currently on the Lakewood stage through March 9, in a production directed by the theatre’s Producing Artistic Director Joseph C. Walsh.

The structure of the play is quite fascinating. As I said, it’s similar to what I saw in the sequel last season, but what is impressive to me is what Joseph has done with this as the show’s director. Firstly, it’s important to understand Lakewood as a venue. It’s a theatre in the round, square really, with seats around and on every side of the center stage area. In every show I’ve seen there over the past few years, the stage has been the focal point, it’s where the scenic design is reflected, with some of the corners utilized at times for the placement of set pieces, but the walls of the theatre are usually left alone, making the room feel more like a black box than anything. Here, though, Joseph and Kevin James have simplified the design on the floor, making it look like hardwood planks with just a number of chairs, stools, and benches placed on it, but it’s the periphery where they’ve made a difference, painting the walls of the Lakewood Playhouse theatre to resemble blue sky and clouds, representing the Wyoming sky, what in the play is more than once referred to as the last thing that Matthew Shepard saw before he died at the hands of Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, and placing costume and prop elements, contributed by Madeleine Arnold, on hooks on these same walls along the aisles of the theatre, elements used by the cast for the portrayals of the characters that they play during the telling of the story. This is a bold statement from the design team and in that telling, there’s a lot of creativity as well, the way the chairs are used, the way lighting is used, as well as sound. Elijah Bellis is the lighting designer and Brookelyne Peterson is responsible for sound in the Lakewood production of The Laramie Project. And what they do in support of Joesph’s vision is very creative. The only thing that doesn’t work, creatively, is (or at least was on Sunday) the snow machine near the end of the play. The idea is to present a snowy, wintry day for the funeral of Matthew Shepard, but by the time the actors walked on to the stage, there was no evidence of the snow remaining on the stage, or even in the air, the lights in the theatre so warm that unless the actors walk in at the exact same time the snow falls, the effect is rendered useless.

There are two pieces to the storytelling, and each member of the cast participates actively in each. First, there is the Tectonic Theatre group. The cast represents members of that group, the audience hears their conversations, their notes, their thoughts. When these happen, the actors work in sync, they move in and out of their chairs, pick them up and move them, all together, illuminated brightly on stage. Meanwhile, when one or more of the company members interviews a Laramie citizen, movement is more free, more natural, and the lighting is softer. And then there are the re-enactments, press conferences in which the hospital staff is updating the condition of Matthew Shepard, pressers from the Wyoming governor, each scene presented with the right amount of chaos that one would expect given the situation. Joseph and his team have done a nice job capturing the essence of these scenes, and they’ve also, along with this cast, done a fantastic job of capturing the emotion of the piece, and there is a lot of that. The Laramie Project is an incredibly emotional show, and one that is awfully difficult at times. A story that depicts a young gay man getting deceived, tricked into getting into a truck with two others claiming to also be gay, then robbed, then beaten only to be left tied to a fence in rural Laramie, Wyoming, is enough to bring even the most stoic to tears. But to hear the interviews conducted by the theatre group, and the answers given, answers that people think aren’t homophobic or bigoted in any way, but clearly are, it starts to paint a pretty good picture, a picture of a town of people that on the outside are tolerant to the extent that people considered different just go about their business and keep to themselves, but on the inside are not nearly so. There are allies, sure, and the audience hears those interviews as well, but it’s also fairly clear how much fear those allies live in. The play is so uniquely constructed, and well written, and it’s perhaps just as important now as it was in 2000, when it was originally produced, perhaps even more so, as our society skews more and more divisive every day, with “othering” seemingly headed toward a zenith.

And it’s clear that this play is important to Joseph, his creative team, and the cast that he has put together for this production. It’s a group that is extremely well prepared, well rehearsed, and confident in what they’re portraying on stage. There’s a lot of synchronicity as I mentioned before, and not just in movement, but vocally as well, and nothing was missed this past Sunday. The play feels like the cast has been performing it, not just for a week in front of an audience, but for months. Even credit goes to each of the cast members, this really is a true ensemble piece. Each member of the group plays a member of the theatre troupe and at least one Laramie citizen, a cast that includes Darryin B. Cunningham, Zack Fowler, Mykahla George, Ty Halton, Aya Hashiguchi, Brookelyne Peterson, Jason Sharp, and Stefanie MeiFang Van Rafelghem, each bringing so much to this ensemble performance, though individually they’re all very good as well. Before I talk about some of those individual highlights, there’s something important to call out about this group. Taking a step back to consider the amount of time that each of these actors has spent with this material, between read-throughs, running lines on their own or together, scene rehearsals, full run-throughs, dress rehearsals, and two shows before the matinee that I saw, for this group to be able to dig deep, pull the emotion out that they do, and put everything out on stage in a series of performances that feel like they’ve been pulled from each actor’s soul, exhausting them to the point that the built in deep breaths in the play act not just as pauses, but as pressure releases, as resets, it’s a fantastical display of being so involved in the work that it can’t help but come across in this manner. There could be an inclination to detach, to read the lines and act through the emotions, but this group feels them, there is no doubt about that, and with credit to Joseph and this entire cast, it’s a beautiful thing to see on stage.

In the program for The Laramie Project, each actor is listed with their particular Tectonic Theatre group role, along with “and other”, which is quite the understatement, as it’s in their portrayal of these others, the citizens of Laramie, where their individual performances excel. As the Tektonic group, it’s all about that synchronicity, but the individuality of the citizenry focuses on anything but. Jason Sharp, for example, who in the Tektonic group, is leader Moisés Kaufman, shows perhaps the most versatility in his character portrayals, but his turn as the limo driver who recounts his trip with Matthew Shepard is the most telling, the strongest example of someone who thinks that he’s not bigoted, but his true attitudes come out in his the way he describes his encounter, almost mocking Matthew’s mannerisms. He’s also Wyoming’s Governor, and his quick switch from one to the other, including costume and accent changes, is excellently done. Zack Fowler (Stephen Belber in Tektonic) brings the most levity to a play that is extremely heavy, as the bartender who testifies as one of the last people who saw Matthew before heading out with the two suspects. His flair for the dramatic and lovable egocentrism is a welcome escape from much of the weight of the subject matter in the play. Mykahla George (Leigh Fondakowski) shows, as a lesbian in Laramie, what the environment feels like for a gay person in the town where Matthew ultimately met his end, and as the person who discovered Matthew tied to the fence, struggling for life, questions the the spiritual purpose of being in the right place at the right time. Darryin B. Cunningham (Greg Pierotti) as the town Sheriff is extremely good in his defense of the town and its people, but not in a way that makes him closed off to the fact that something like this could happen. Aya Hashiguchi (Amanda Gronic) is a rancher and the mother of a police officer in Laramie, played by Stefanie MeiFang Van Rafelghem (Mercedes Herrero), who isn’t entirely forthcoming with all of the information she knows, at least at first in trying to protect her daughter, but later has a change of heart. Her’s is a different perspective from the folks that live downtown and Stefanie’s portrayal of the police officer who has a health scare that makes her contemplate her career choice is a good one. As the responding officer to the crime scene, her delivery of the description of what she found when she got there is truly emotional and heart wrenchingly delivered. Ty Halton (Andy Paris) and Brookelyne Peterson (Barbara Pitts) round out the cast in excellent and versatile turns that find them expressing so much emotion on stage the audience can’t help but be brought into it. I’d love to see Joseph bring this cast back together and stage The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, I think it would be a fitting sequel and a wonderful way to bring this story full circle at Lakewood Playhouse.

The Laramie Project is a difficult play that presents some pretty heavy subject matter, the story of Matthew Shepard’s robbery and subsequent murder at the hands of two young men in Laramie, Wyoming, a crime committed in a most gruesome way against a person ostensibly just for being gay. It’s a play that is uniquely constructed, and one that is timely in a social climate that seems to be skewing toward a viewpoint where crimes like this aren’t out of the realm of possibility. What differentiates the Lakewood Playhouse production of The Laramie Project, under the direction of Joseph C. Walsh, is the amount of love that the cast and creative team has put into it, enough love to present a show that is memorable and impactful, one that has the potential to change minds and hearts. It’s important to know what you’re getting into when you go to see this play, and you most definitely should go and see it, but when you do, you’ll see a production that reaches into its collective soul to draw you into this young man’s heartbreaking and tragic story, and provides a sense of empathy to those who society views and degrades as others.

The Laramie Project runs on stage at Lakewood Playhouse through March 9. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.lakewoodplayhouse.org/.

Photo credit: Ashley Roy Simpson