‘Laramie Project’ Powerfully Conveys Hope

There are moments that define America’s character, drawing complex, contradictory impulses to the surface for the world to see.

The ongoing example, of course, is Sept. 11. A different one occurred in Laramie, Wyo., in October 1998, when Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old college student, was severely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. The brutality caught people short, as did the fact that it was committed by two men no older than Shepard, spurred to their actions in part because he was gay.

Soon after news teams swarmed the city of 27,000, Moises Kaufman and nine members of his New York City-based Tectonic Theater Project (the creators of “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde”) also traveled there to talk to residents. From more than 200 interviews, the company shaped the documentary theater piece “The Laramie Project,” a galvanic work that tickles out disturbing American traits even as it discovers enormous reserves of openness and compassion.

Though given its premiere more than two years ago in Denver, the play is just now receiving its first Los Angeles production.

A riveting presentation by the Colony Theatre Company had Saturday’s opening-night audience listening in absolute, attentive silence, except for outbursts of surprised laughter and scattered coughs as people choked back tears.

In Tectonic’s production (which traveled to Berkeley and La Jolla last year), company members portrayed themselves at work in Laramie and were able to re-create their interview subjects from firsthand knowledge. Director Nick DeGruccio and his Colony cast have no such connection and had to find the truth in the text itself.

The action unfolds against the expansive blue backdrop of the Wyoming sky, with the slatted wood floor of Bradley Kaye’s set design rising into foothills. The eight performers portray nearly 80 people, providing a running narrative as they don recognizable costume elements--a police jacket, for example, or a cowboy hat--and adjust their voices and mannerisms to shift from one character to the next.

Their words, transcribed verbatim from the interviews, repeatedly stress that Laramie is a live-and-let-live sort of place. Yet every once in a while, a voice emerges to insinuate that by living openly, Shepard invited what happened to him.

Among the most compelling interviewees are a policewoman called to the crime scene (Nancy Learmonth), whose professional composure keeps cracking with emotion, and her plain-spoken, open-hearted mom (Jodi Carlisle). A bartender (Tony Maggio) who saw Shepard leave with his attackers proves to be a natural raconteur, while a lesbian friend of Shepard’s (Faith Coley Salie) and a political-minded Islamic feminist (Alison Shanks) provide some of the deepest, most heartfelt insights.

Shepard’s father (Chip Heller) gives a moving in-court eulogy to his son, while in the community, a Catholic priest and a police investigator (both played by Ed F. Martin) are among those who open themselves to the incident’s harsh lessons and work to achieve change.

But the character who best exemplifies Laramie’s growth is a talkative University of Wyoming theater student (Chad Borden) who pours everything he’s learned into his portrayal of the gay character Prior Walter in a school production of “Angels in America” and is deeply mortified over an earlier, not entirely accepting attitude toward gay people.

Beginning with “The Laramie Project,” the Colony is taking the economically challenging step up to union-sanctioned mid-size theater production in its new 276-seat home.

This powerful production proves that the company is up to the task, the play’s messages mixing with the Colony’s own dreams as sunlight bursts through rain clouds (a gorgeous effect of Steven Young’s lighting) and a character says: “The whole thing, you see, the whole thing ropes around hope. H-O-P-E.”

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“The Laramie Project,” Colony Theatre, 555 N. 3rd St., Burbank. Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends June 30. $25-$31. (818) 558-7000. Running time: 2 hours, 55 minutes.