You Are There
Actors Bridge’s outstanding production of The Laramie Project affirms the power of live theater
by Martin Brady
It’s energizing to be reminded that the theater is an elemental art. In this increasingly technological age, the theater always seems to be running the risk of extinction as it fights other media for publicity, audience appreciation and attendance numbers. But the back-to-basics allure of live performance need only once be demonstrated well for the art form to be validated all over again.
Such is the case with the new Actors Bridge Ensemble presentation of The Laramie Project. I’m not sure if this is a definitive production of Moisés Kaufman’s revisitation of the 1998 Matthew Shepard murder case in Laramie, Wyo. But it is awfully good. There are solid performances throughout, as well as a few that really stand out. But mostly, it is the ensemble character of the production that ingratiates the viewer. Everyone in the 10-member cast exhibits a deep commitment to the play’s message and its pulse. And if there’s one piece of theater Nashvillians ought to see this year, this might be it.
Actors Bridge artistic director Bill Feehely and company member Vali Forrister share directorial credit for the production, which certainly does exhibit an Our Town kind of feel. (As Feehely noted in an interview last week, The Laramie Project has been called an Our Town for our time.) The Shepard case, which drew particular attention because the victim was gay, is never really approached head-on in this piece. Instead, we get the impressions of 64 persons who were involved either directly or tangentially with the tragic events. Like Thornton Wilder’s classic drama of life in small-town New England, Laramie gives us vivid yet simple characters—bartenders, cab drivers, shop owners, doctors, policemen, college professors, clergy, politicians, newspapermen, neighbors, etc.—whose collective portrait no doubt captures the folksy feel of Wyomingites, but more broadly exemplifies the general human condition. How a self-contained community reacts to a murder in its midst is certainly modernistic fare, and the Kaufman/Tectonic Theatre Project script—based on recorded interviews with the townies—reaffirms the theater’s capability for exposing basic emotions with a you-are-there immediacy.
The set is simple, with tables placed in front of the rear wall (a layout reminiscent of Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?, Eric Bentley’s docudrama drawn from the 1950s House Un-American Activities Committee’s hearings on Communist influence in the entertainment industry). One by one, sometimes in twos or maybe threes, the actors come forward to testify, as it were. Along the way, we learn about Shepard, a likable if somewhat transparent young man who came from a comfortable family. And we do learn the details of his final days on earth, before he succumbed to a brutal beating at the hands of two Laramie semi-thugs. But mostly we experience the everyday reactions of locals—their fear, their ambivalence, their embarrassment, their shock, their heartbreak and often their willingness to disengage from the whole bloody mess. Incidents of anti-gay bigotry are also recounted, which, while not really the play’s dramatic thrust, do serve as a reminder of how far human sensibility still needs to travel.
The performances are varied and generally always good, with the actors sharing the load of the threescore characters, including the interviewing members of Kaufman’s theater company. ABE regulars Feehely, Forrister, Rachel Agee, Tara Lacey, Jeff Lewis and Amy Chomsky are all consistently excellent. Don Griffiths, who’s usually relegated to technical or directorial tasks for Actors Bridge, also proves himself quite worthy as an actor, offering a dozen heartfelt, believable portrayals. Veteran thespian Henry Haggard is also on hand to deliver some typically colorful characterizations. Colleen Egan occasionally exhibits some youthful insecurity onstage, yet she also displays sensitivity and some appealing raw talent in six key roles. The most noteworthy performance is that of Matthew Gerbig, who is making his Nashville debut. Gerbig has undeniable presence and native actorly skills, which he applies with versatility to diverse characters, from a troubled emergency-room physician to Aaron McKinney, one of Shepard’s murderers.
While simplicity is the watchword here, there are a few interesting technical wrinkles in this production. Richard Davis provides a quietly effective lighting design that jumps around nimbly with the players’ cameo-like appearances. Also, video coordinator Mark Venuti has scattered TV monitors about the theater, offering the audience the option of viewing a few sequences in a “live” electronic-news format. Nathan Lacey and Jeff Schmidt are the “in-your-face” cameramen.
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