THE LARAMIE PROJECT. To 6 April.
London
THE LARAMIE PROJECT
by Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project
The Red Chair Players USA at Cochrane Theatre To 6 April 2003
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu & Fri 2pm Sun 2.30pm
TICKETS: 020 7269 1606
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 March
A fine demonstration of theatre's power to probe and present the complexity of extreme experience.Spaced out as watering-holes for the early trans-U.S. railroads, Wyoming towns are surrounded by space and blue sky. The simple set of this documentary - about the killing of a young gay man in 1998 Laramie - captures both. The rail where costumes for the multiple characters hang is revealed as a prairie fence like the one where Matthew Shepard was left to die by a couple of moronic (and in one case Mormon) fellow Middle-Americans.
There's nothing new about the play's documentary format, introducing characters, then interleaving their edited verbatim testimony. There doesn't need to be. What's needed is clarity and integrity: using others' words to tell a story (or build a narrative through a series of stories) without falsifying their accounts.
This high school cast may have some raw edges of technique, but they easily justify the London transfer from last year's Edinburgh Fringe: all the performances stand up thrillingly. Such as Mary Birnbaum's Reggie, a 39 year old police-person, still comically clucked over by her parents, then going through the scare of discovering the dying man she'd tried to resuscitate, with cuts on her hands, was HIV-positive. You live the anxiety of medication and the liberated joy of negative test outcomes as if she were your friend or neighbour.
Or Elliott Rauh as a defendant pleading guilty, rumbling contrition as if he'd never had a feeling in his life. The local university academic, first to come out as a lesbian (as late as 1992), to be warned more reticent lesbians would find it dangerous to associate with her. The young performer 'phoning a bombastic preacher and hearing his prejudices down the line (a fine test of objectivity). These, and many more, refuse to be reduced to headline or sound-bite simplicity.
The reward of this human, and moral, complexity comes when Fred Sykes' father, smartly dressed in court, tells how he would love to see one of his son's killers die, then pleads for clemency in his dead son's name. Arriving at that moment, so scrupulously and movingly played, this production proves again the power of documentary theatre.
Stephen Belber/Gil Engen/Harry Woods/Doc O'Connor/Fred Phelps/Aaron McKinney/Cal rerucha: Martin Bercetche
Barbara Pitts/Father Roger Schmidt/Reggie Fluty/Eileen Engen/Catherine Connoly/Kerry Drake/Judge/Reporter: Mary Birnbaum
Kelli Simpkins/Minister's Wife/Kristin Price/Aaron Kriefels/Rebecca Hilliker/Sherry Johnson/Reporter: Christina Ciocca
Amanda Gronic/Alison Mears/Trish Steger/Zubaida ula/Anonymous/E-mail writer/Jen/The Priest/Lucy Thompson/Reporter: Shula Grossman
Moises Kaufman/Philip Dubois/Stephen Mead Johnson/Shadow/Governor Geringer/ Rulon Stacey/Shannon/Mormon Home Teacher: Jamie Peterson
Andy Parris/Jedediah Schultz/Jon Peacock/Matt Mickelson/Russell Henderson/Rob Debree: Elliott Rauh
Leigh Fondakowski/Zackie Salmon/Marge Murray/Romaine Patterson/Baptist Minister/Dr Cantway/Tiffany Edwards
Greg Pierotti/Sgt Hing/Jonas Slonaker/Doug Laws/Matt Galloway/Dennis Shepard
Director: Linda Ames Key
Assistant Director: Barbara Pitts
Lighting: Adam Carree
Graphic Design: Marion Davies
2003-03-25 02:05:38