OCT's "Laramie Project": Powerful and Thought-Provoking

review by Sue Scott

The last performance of the Olean Community Theatre's season was a powerful production.  It was a telling of the hate crime murder of Matthew Shephard.  At the start of "The Laramie Project," the audience was shown a slide show.  This set the tone for the play.  There was a hometown feeling at first, then there was a slide of the scene of the crime, the news media frenzy, then a slide of  Matthew Shephard himself.

The people there were much like their town.  On the outside, they seemed like the rest of America, all modern like the Wal-Mart on the outskirts of Laramie.  However, as you get closer to the center, you find the people's attitudes are as unchanged as the downtown area.

The actors of OCT portrayed several characters.  One would think that could be confusing, but with the immense talent onstage all it took was a switch in attitude, facial expressions, and a prop or a small costume change to bring a whole new person to life.

The people of Laramie seemed shocked that such a horrible crime could be committed right there in their beautiful town.  On closer examination, you could get the feeling from listening to the very opinionated townsfolk that it may have only been a matter of time before someone did it.  They found it hard to comprehend the brutality of it all inspite of the aura of homophobia.  "We don't grow children like that around here," one of them said.  Really?  The student's redneck opinions were acceptable to their teacher.  She liked that they had an opinion.  She didn't bother to try to change them.

The older people there wanted to talk about every aspect of the way Laramie had always been.  When it came to talking about gay people or about Matthew Shephard, they were more guarded.  Was that because they didn't have anything to say, or was it because they had never bothered to allow their minds to venture outside of their comfort zones?

Had anyone taken the time to think about homosexuality at all?  Would they have discovered that it was nothing to worry about?  Had anyone really taken the time to get to know Matt?  Were they afraid to find out that the "gay guy" was polite, had manners, was always well dressed, generous, friendly, and was willing to visit with anyone?  Obviously not.  Ignorance breeds fear and fear breeds aggression.  Most gay people left Laramie.  They found that they just couldn't live there.

There was an immediate aftermath for some of the people.  The young man who found him couldn't get it out of his head.  The bartender felt he should have done something when he saw Matt leaving in the truck with those two boys.  The cop who was first on the scene was worried about getting HIV because she was using poor quality gloves.  The cop's mother didn't was her daughter to die before she did.

When the clergy of the town were interviewed, some ministers sidestepped the issue.  The Bible says that that kind of relationship is wrong, so it's wrong.  "The Word is either sufficient or it's not."  The Catholic priest was trying to find acceptance.  I wonder if any of the people would look at religion as a place for any answers.  They couldn't even accept a hometown girl, who just happened to be Muslim, when she started to wear her head covered.

The doctor who cared for Matthew went on television to tell the media of his death.  He tried to hold back the tears when he spoke and blamed it on having been up too many hours.  Another of the fine citizens of Laramie asked if he "cried for all of his patients or just the faggots?"  Another astute observer noted the injustice that when some local dies he gets a tiny article in the paper, but when the outsider, Matthew Shephard dies, he gets all the big commotion.

Every one in town seemed to have an opinion when the trial began, but no one wanted to serve on the jury.  As it turned out, both Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson will be spending the rest of their lives in prison.  A fellow inmate of one of them pointed out the justice of it all by saying, "Why kill a faggot if you're just gonna be a faggot."  I guess it's true what they say about what goes around, comes around.

The Laramie Project was a well-performed play.  The subject matter was dark and thought provoking.  Matthew Shephard's father wondered how Matt would have changed his little piece of the world to make it better.  How will we?