CHICAGOCRITIC.COM
BY TOM WILLIAMS
Posted Monday, March 5, 2006
Recommended
Janus Theatre’s eight member ensemble landed the powerful, heart-wrenching saga of the horrible hate crime against Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. The famous and saddening story of homophobia gone to extremes is told through the eyes of the Teconic Theater Project under Moises Kaufman’s leadership. This company traveled six times to Laramie and conducted over 200 interviews with everyone involved in the crime from town residents to law enforcement officials to religious leaders covering the complete story in a slick documentary style. Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, tortured and killed by two men simply because he was gay.
Lynn Wirth, Jeremy Schaefer, Seth Remington, Zachary Clark, Laura Schwartz, Jonathan Shalvi, Karen Pappas and Helen Young deftly played dozens of characters using first person narration that aptly told the story with enough background and local color to give context to how and why this terrible crime happened. This is an amazingly well performed show showcasing the versatile talents of each actor.
This documentary completely covers Matthew Shepard’s story that unfolds as powerful journalism and emotionally strong theatre. This approach contains a look into the lowly depths humans can reach when fear, ignorance and bigotry are allowed to exist. Kudos to the cast and director for mounting a fast paced sincere energetic telling of a story that needs to be heard often so it will not be repeated.
The talent of this ensemble is evident as they let the power of the story lead us into compassion for the victim and rage against bigotry. This is a polished production of an American tragedy. I think Matthew Shepard would appreciate the dedication of the Janus Theatre ensemble.
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