By John Lyle Belden
Twenty-seven years, this October.
That is how long it has been since the murder of Matthew Shepard. About five years longer than he was alive.
The memory of that life, how the gay college student was brutally beaten and left to die tied to a wooden fence, and how the aftermath changed a town and affected the world were captured by the Tectonic Theatre Project, led by Moises Kaufman, in “The Laramie Project.” This play – more like a staged documentary derived from actual interviews and journal entries – is presented by Picture It! Players at IF Theatre through Sunday (May 18).
Directed by Molly Bellner, the cast of Austin Uebelhor, Thom Turner, Adam Phillips, Ryan Moskalick, Amelia Tryon, Cass Knowling, Susan Yeaw, Mary-Margaret Sweeney, and James LaMonte portray both the project interviewers and the people of Laramie, Wyoming, whom they talked to.
Among various roles, Uebelhor plays Kaufman and a priest who organized the candlelight vigil while Shepard was in a coma; Turner is the overwhelmed police sergeant tasked with the case as well as the E.R. doctor who initially treated Shepard, and, coincidentally, one of his attackers; Phillips plays the bartender who was among the last to see Shepard before his attack, as well as a minister preaching against homosexuality; Moskalick’s roles include a theatre student whose perspective widens and one of the attackers, dodging the death penalty by pleading guilty; Tryon relates being the police officer on the scene cutting the cords binding a bloody body, while Yeaw is her concerned mother; Knowling plays a close female friend of “Matt” as well as the teen cyclist who found him dying in the Wyoming countryside; Sweeney gives the view of the head of the University of Wyoming theatre department as well as a local newspaper reporter; LaMonte gives us the empathetic Sheriff’s department investigator as well as the infamously cruel Fred Phelps.
This is an important piece of theatre, an examination of a life, a senseless sadistic crime, and of the rest of us – how we deal with what happened as well as our attitudes and beliefs.
We had seen a production before, on the 20th anniversary of Shepard’s death in 2018. I knew what to expect, however, this time I was struck by the degree of appropriately measured humor in this play. The awkward interactions that come from strangers from a New York theatre coming out West to talk to folks about this absolute worst thing that had happened does set up a few gentle laughs. Upon reflection of the kind of love for life Matt Shepard was known to exhibit this bit of levity is welcome, humanizing the many people dealing with this trauma in their own way. On the other hand, knowing this is based on true events, it didn’t take stage trickery to bring real tears to the actors’ eyes.
Only two performances, 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, remain as I post this. It’s on the IF Theatre Basile main stage, 719 E. St. Clair St., downtown Indianapolis; get tickets at indyfringe.org.
Plays with John & Wendy 