The Laramie Project; Simple, Honest, Hopeful and Touching

As a reviewer, you try to be fairly objective when approaching a piece of theater.  As a human, you know that you bring your own prejudices and pre-conceptions with you, but you try to avoid it as much as possible.  But, when you can’t avoid them, you at least try to acknowledge them and set them aside.  I did not think I could do that with The Laramie Project, and so last night was the first time I have ever seen the show presented.

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I am glad I did not wait any longer.  The company at The Seeing Place Theater handles the intimate, stripped down piece beautifully.  I was surprised by the immediacy of The Laramie Project in a manner I didn’t expect.   

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The story of the show is basic.  Moises Kaufman and the members of Tectonic Theater Project travelled to Laramie, Wyoming in the aftermath of the Matthew Sheppard murder.  They visited the town, spoke with the residents, friends of Matthew, friends of the attackers, clergy, police and anyone else who would talk to them.  They visited 6 times over the course of the year and ultimately nearly the entire town ended up sharing their stories.  Upon their return they created The Laramie Project.  It is the story of Matthew Shepard’s death, the media circus that descended on Laramie and a town struggling.  That single act of viciousness defined the town in the minds of the country with an undeserved legacy.  Laramie residents struggled with what happened and what it said about them, just as the world passed judgment on the small city where everyone knows each other.

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The show doesn’t offer any change in the basic narrative of Matthew Shepard’s death.  He was a slight, well liked and well known young man in Laramie.  After a normal night out at a local bar, he left with two local guys about his age.  They took him out to a seldom-traveled road, robbed him, tied him to a fence post and beat him to the edge of death.

The Ensemble of The Laramie Project

During a slow news cycle, the 24 hour media machine descended and passed judgment on the crime, the city and the people of Laramie Wyoming.  The residents were characterized as stereotypical hateful hicks, bitter and un-educated.  The authors of the Laramie project sought to understand what happened.  They don’t.  There is no a way to “understand” what happened that night.  The perpetrators robbed and then viciously beat an innocent young man, Matthew Shepard died and the media rolled out of town.  But the theater company stayed and listened to the people of Laramie.  And they tell the story of a town rejecting collective guilt, but determined to change because of it.

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The Seeing Place actors’ job here then is two fold.  Not just to recreate the townspeople of Laramie, but the actor / authors that created the project.  And they do it perfectly, both in the words that come so easily from actors and in the raw, honest words spoken by the people of Laramie.  It is an ensemble piece and this group of eight actors is stellar.  Calling out any single actor seems unfair since each portrayal is both heartfelt and convincing.

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Jonathan Miles, Elle Emerson and Kathryn Neville Brown

Towards the end of the show, one of the women of Laramie, a western mother who has seen plenty in life, admonishes the departing authors to treat Laramie right, to tell the story honestly.  The Seeing Place Theater cast takes this request to heart and delivers.  They have presented a careful, honest telling of a place and time.  The murder of Matthew Sheppard was, in 1998, seared into our collective memory and we thought it would burn forever.  It did not.  Pushed out by 9/11, the success of gay marriage, the failure of our political system and various news stories great and small, the story of Matthew Sheppard fades into history.  But the effect of that young man, the response from the “normal folks of Laramie” has been added to the story of our country and ourselves.  I am very pleased, and a little honored, to see it presented so well.

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Ably directed by Erin Cronican and Brandon Walker (who also appear in the piece), The Laramie Project moves quickly, giving plenty of time for the audience to travel the emotional road, but still held together tightly enough that time doesn’t drag.  The Laramie Project is excellent and if you have put it off thinking it would be too depressing, I urge you to see it.

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The Laramie Project

Playwright: Moises Kaufman and the Members of the Tectonic Theater Project

Cast: Brian Stuart Boyd, Kathryn Neville Brown, Erin Cronican, John D’Arcangelo, Elle Emerson, Jonathan Miles, Christina M Pastor, Brandon Walker

Director: Erin Cronican and Brandon Walker

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Two Rooms Is Fresher than Ever

Two Rooms, a 1988 play by Lee Blessings, is having a mesmerizing revival at The Seeing Place now.  It is in repertory with Dying City, and the two shows provide a harrowing glimpse into the lives of those left behind in a time of war.  They work together as a whole, but each can stand alone as a great show.

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Alexandra Hellquist & Justin Hoch

At first glance, the context of Two Rooms suggests that it will not age well.  It is the story of the wife of a Lebanese captive, told in the 1980s when hostage taking in Beirut was common.  Michael (Logan Keeler) is an American professor who has been held captive for over a year, and Lainie (an electric Alexandra Hellquist) is his wife back home in the states.  Lainie has stripped one room to the bare walls, to mimic her husband’s imagined condition.  Two Rooms explores her attempts to push  the US Government to resolve her husband’s case.

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You quickly forget this play was written 25 years ago.  The specifics of danger have changed, but the complexities of the Middle East, the impotence of the State Department, the motivations of the press and the government are as immediate today as they were in 1988.  And the heartbreak conveyed by Ms. Hellquist as Lainie is powerful in any era.

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Lainie is both supported and exploited by the press and the US Government.  Lila Smith plays State Department employee Ellen.  Ellen is equal parts exasperated, frustrated and sympathetic to Lainie and her situation.  Unable to offer anything concrete, she offers hope – which grows stale after years of captivity.  

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Ellen’s counterpoint in the press is Walker, played nicely by Justin Hoch.  As a reporter, Walker offers a different route to gain attention.  He works with Lainie to bring her plight to the American people directly.  Walker gives Lainie plenty of time to tell her story, and then provides her a voice in the media.  He also, oh so tentatively, might want to offer more, but Lainie shuts down this avenue before it is even broached.  There are a few perfect moments in which the only caring thing Ellen and Walker can do is to withdraw.  Ms. Smith and Mr. Hoch bring a depth of humanity and dignity to these roles in those moments.

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Logan Keeler as Michael (foreground)

Lainie’s primary avenue of comfort comes from being inside the empty room, imagining and feeling the presence of her husband.  They speak at each other as if reading letters.  They compose and read these letters mentally, speaking not at each other, but to their memories of each other.  Done poorly, this would be a terrible bit of schmaltz, but these two actors do it beautifully.  Never quite in sync, they are believable as a married couple, deeply in love, but forgetting details over time.  Ms. Hellquist and Mr. Keeler create a unique chemistry in these periods, remembering and loving a misty reflection of their partners –as the audience sees the partners in real time, striving for a connection that is just out of reach.

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Directed by Brandon Walker (who stars in the companion piece Dying City), the pace of the Two Rooms is nearly perfect.  Surprisingly, the longing, the helplessness and the frustration the characters must deal with, convinces the audience to enjoy everything life has to offer.  These two aching shows leave you determine to make every second count.  And the seconds spent at these two shows are well worth the time.  Enjoy!

Two Rooms

Playwright: Lee Blessing

Director: Brandon Walker

Cast: Alexandra Hellquist, Justin Hoch, Logan Keeler, Lila Smith

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An Amazing Dying City by The Seeing Place

The first New York City revival of Dying City demonstrates why this piece was a 2008 finalist for Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Dying City consistently surprises the viewer and challenges expectations.

Erin Cronican & Brandon Walker

The story set up is deceptively simple.  Kelly is a young window who lost her husband Craig in the Iraq War.  A therapist by trade, she appears not to have dealt with her grief.  The unannounced appearance of her husband’s identical twin brother forces her to confront both her guilt in avoiding the family and the grief she hasn’t faced.  

The action shifts inside Kelly’s apartment between 2005 with Her husband’s twin and 2004 the night before he husband leaves.  It is a simple setup, and it implies a story progression and climax by the numbers.  Instead these story leads into unexpected directions, lead by fearless actors.

Erin Cronican plays young widow Kelly and Brandon Walker plays twins Craig and Peter.  I don’t want to give too much away, it would be a sin with a play this rich in emotion, but the actors are amazing.  And amazing acting because it seems, at first, they are rather bad at portraying these characters.

Erin Cronican’s Kelly is a Therapist who is passive and unable to face her own grief, which is a rather simplistic portrayal.  Only as the play progresses does the audience realize, that the character of Kelly is projecting this false face.  Kelly’s later emotional changes and revelations make the Ms. Cronican’s performance exceptional.Brandon Walker’s portrayal of gay brother Peter also seems oddly one-note early in the show.  Peter’s nervous laughter serves as a lazy identifier between the roles, only later does this nervous tick make full sense with the character.  Mr. Walker inhabits both roles believably with wonderful results.I mention this facet of the show, because the slow reveal of the depth of these characters mirrors the depth and slow reveal of the entire show.  It is a pleasure to watch.

Dying City is produced by The Seeing Place, in repertory with Lee Blessing’s play Two Rooms.  It is a fascinating combination, exploring the impact of war on those left behind on the home front.  The women (at home front) in both shows have emotionally cauterized their wounds, but deal with the world very differently.  Different directors, a great Adam Reich in this case, pull these two pieces into harmony.   And a call out is needed for an outstanding effort done by Duane Pagano in lighting design.

Dying City

Playwright: Christopher Shinn

Director: Adam Reich

Cast: Erin Cronican, Brandon Walker

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A Funny and Touching Love Song

The Seeing Place Theater is exploring “Fantasy vs Reality: The Games Our Minds Play” this season, and they have opened with a wonderful show, Love Song by John Kolvenbach.  Despite the overarching theme of the season, Love Song is rooted very much in the reality of emotions and humanity.

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The show is a relatively straightforward look at the life of Bean, played by Brandon Walker.  Bean is a depressed young man, sleepwalking through the daily grind.  He is minimalist to an absurd degree, as noted by the woman who attempts to rob him only to find a nearly empty apartment.

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Bean’s sister Joan is, in many ways, the emotional opposite of Bean.  Joan, well played by Marnie Klar, is a detail oriented, hyper organized, over excitable businessperson.  She rules the office with an iron fist and a short temper.  Her husband Harry, played calmly by Jason Wilson, seems to manage her by passivity - letting her anxiety and control blow up and then dissipate naturally.  Joan and Harry are  only people Bean interacts with, but even with them Bean seems oddly removed from conversations he is part of.

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Brandon Walker and Erin Cronican in Love Song

Enter Molly, played by Erin Cronican, a burglar with an attitude.  Bean arrives home to find Molly waiting for him in his nearly empty apartment.  She questions Bean directly on the way he lives, and his answers surprise them both.  Molly leaves with his pitiful possessions, but is later drawn back to his apartment.  Forced to open up, Bean grows infatuated and excited by Molly.  Bean’s outlook changes as he begins to experience life instead of merely existing.

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Bean’s enthusiasm motivates Joan to reexamine her choices, for the better.  Harry and Joan are infected by Bean’s newfound zest for life.  But complications arise when Joan and Harry try to meet Molly.

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Love Song is a wonderful show, but it starts off a little shaky.   Bean and Joan are defined too broadly as damaged before settling into believability.

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Early on, Brandon Walker’s Bean vacillates between being withdrawn and passive to angry and aggressive in his apartment.  Bean’s sudden enjoyment of life is a little too manic.  It is a frustrating because once the characterization settles in Bean’s transformation delivers a beautiful payoff.   On a side note, the sets by Joe Arnow work excellently to help define Bean’s neuroses.  Mr. Walker silent interactions with the sets and lights convey the fragility of Bean.

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Marnie Klar and Jason Wilson exploring freedom in Love Song

Marnie Klar’s Joan is well played, but also over written at the start of the show.  The character starts as excessively Type-A personality.  Joan’s journey would be more believable if frazzled frustration showed through instead of manic intensity.  It is a choice of the playwright that Ms. Klar almost makes work.  Once Joan’s foundation shifts a little, Ms. Klar is excellent in delivering a nuanced performance.

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Ms. Cronican’s character Molly benefits from lovely writing, and she gives a nicely restrained performance.  A burglar that stirs emotion in wounded psyche, and then responds to it, is a tough act to render believably.

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Love Song is sweet and funny, as well as a fascinating look at the power of emotion.  So much of the story and acting is great, that the occasional odd choices are frustrating.  Once the story starts to move, the play flows beautifully.

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Love Song is being presented through December 9^th at a low price of $12.00.

Love Song

Playwright: John Kolvenbach

Director: Erin Cronican

Cast: Erin Cronican, Marnie Klar, Javan Nelson, Brandon Walker, Jason Wilson

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