Concrete Playground meets The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later

Best friends Sophie Hambleton and Kate McGill are stoked to be working together on the American play The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later, the epilogue to the iconic Laramie Project. This play was edited together using interviews with people from Laramie, Wyoming where the brutal murder of gay man Matthew Shephard took place.

Concrete Playground spoke to director Kate (right) and actress Sophie (left) about why they are excited to be bringing this play to Auckland audiences.

Was it a conscious choice to put this play on now or is it just coincidental that gay issues are so relevant in New Zealand  at the moment?

Kate: Well, I decided to mount the work when I was in America working on the play with Tectonic Theatre Project, the company which made it. I thought the themes were so relevant here even before the gay marriage bill came up. It deals with social history as well as homophobia and the defensive marriage act. It goes past the issue of hate crimes and delves into how communities can form a moral compass.

How does the epilogue differ from the original play?

Kate: Members of Tectonic Theatre Project initially wanted to go back ten years later and write a 20 minute epilogue just to check in with the community and see what legislative changes had happened. But when they got there, they realised it could be much bigger than that. The play revisits the event but the eight actors play about 53 characters from priests to moms to murderers to Joe Blogs next door, to media representatives, to Republicans and Democrats. I think the exciting thing about this play is you don't get given a protagonist, the audience chooses who they want to follow. It's not about preaching, it's about discussion.

Sophie: It forces you to consider multiple perspectives so you're constantly being challenged to think about such things as, am I on a side, should I be on a side?

How did you secure exclusive rights to the play in New Zealand?

Kate: I got involved on their very first production of Laramie Project in America just after I graduated from drama school a couple of years ago and I had a really great experience working with them. We've continued to keep up a dialogue with each other and they approved my application for rights straight away.

Sophie, how did you get involved in the play?

Kate and I have been friends for coming up ten years. We're best friends and went to drama school together, although we were in different years. We devised a show for the Wellington Fringe Festival years ago and we've always had a desire to work together again. I came down to see the Wellington production of the show, which was performed at Bats, and was absolutely blown away.

Kate, did you audition actors with different parts in mind or did you work that out with the actors?

It was kind of collaborative. For this kind of play you need versatile actors and luckily all of the actors bring so much to the table.

What are the roles you are performing Sophie?

I play Laramie local Regie Flutey who was the first police officer to find Matthew Shephard. I also play a university lecturer, the editor of the local newspaper, a mom, a clerk and a local man at a pot luck dinner. All of us, I think, play characters whose opinions and relationship to Matthew are all quite different. So that's been interesting.

Is this the first time you've played multiple characters?

Sophie: No, I played two very different characters in Top Girls for Silo Theatre Company at the beginning of the year. At drama school we were forever playing all kinds of parts but since graduating I haven't done that quite so often and certainly not to this extent.

How are rehearsals going?

Kate: Good, everyone has other projects going on at the same time. A couple of actors are in Wellington at the moment so I've been skype rehearsing them, which has been interesting. I rehearsed Sophie and Renee today for three hours. It is very much an ensemble piece but we work on scenes separately to try to be as true to the characters are possible. One of the exciting things about this work is you've got eight actors on stage doing so many different things at once. In one scene they'll bring you over here to see the courtroom in action then you'll go straight out to a farm to see other people's perspectives.

Is it quite a heavy work?

Kate: Yes and no. There are interviews with the two murderers so those are two quite big scenes. The stories of the two murderers are fascinating because they came from the same town and were the same age but were from completely different backgrounds. One of the lines of the play is: What did we as a society do to teach you that? That's the heavy side of the play but then there is the hope in people thinking they are not going to live their lives by this event. People who choose to do good and not be afraid.  It's not a simple work. It's quite complex, but I think overall, it's quite positive.

For details on the Auckland season of The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later, go here.