Moisés Kaufman’s Docudrama Still Horrifies After 25 Years

 by Jenyth Jo

In 1998, two ignorant losers brutally beat and hogtie Matthew Shepard to a barbed-wire fence post outside Laramie, Wyoming. Shepard was a 5’2” college student, targeted because he was gay.

When the news of this hate crime came out, New York writer Moisés Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Project asked how this could happen in America. Kaufman presents multiple opinions from Laramie’s townspeople, even the cringeworthy ones.

Kaufman’s play ends with a vision of hope in the stars and lights of Laramie. But 25 years later, we know Matthew Shepard’s heinous murder isn’t a singular event. Homophobia is rampant. Trans women are disappearing at alarming rates. Legal and physical violence against the queer community is on the rise. Suicide hotlines for LGBTQ have been DOGE’d.

When I wonder why this moving testament does not appear onstage as often as it deserves, I remember that it has  66 characters. But at the Rhino, magic lights up the Castro when these six brilliant  actors  perform 10-13 roles each. They deftly inhabit many characters, keeping up a swift pace, and gripping our attention. Well done, Rhino!

Loud and proud, Michael DeMartini and Pati Shojaee play cis and queer men and women with dexterity. They capture the script’s macabre humor, widening its appeal.

Dany Benítez’s sonorous rendition of “Amazing Grace” confronts a pastor’s hate-filled religion.

Zolboo Namkhaidorj uses a profound baritone for Sgt. Hing and a whiny soprano for the minister’s wife, drawing us swiftly into two distinct roles.

Christian Jimenez blossoms as Aaron Kreifels, the young man who at first thought Matthew was a stuffed Halloween scarecrow. Jimenez conveys the trauma of identifying a bludgeoned, blood-covered man tied to a fence.  Jimenez inspires profound empathy, raising the stakes.

When Aaron stumbles upon barely breathing Matthew, we wish he had a cell phone. My friend and I agonized: “Could GPS have saved him?”

Sarah “Eli” Hampton’s character Romaine Patterson, channeling “Angels in America,” wears “Big-Ass Wings” to Matthew’s funeral. When she raises her wings, they block hate-filled preacher Fred Phelps’s anti-gay diatribe. Hampton embodies defiance and hope in the face of blatant bigotry.

Although Shepard’s story is grounded in the 90s, artful details like Zubaida Ula’s Palestinian keffiyeh update the horror. The ensemble’s anguished interpretive dance reveals dancers shrinking and sinking into Shepherd’s fetal position on the fence. At that point, we two cis middle-aged women began to weep.

One of Matthew’s murderers, Russell Henderson, applied for early release in September of 2024. He was denied. He must remain in jail for the rest of his life. “For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy” (James 2:13).

Theatre Rhino’s staged reading resoundingly answers Kaufman’s question: “Is theater a medium that can contribute to the national dialogue on current events?” Yes.

Bravo! to Rhino for bringing a new generation of actors onstage to perform an indelible work of art. Their protest against the demonizing of the “other” makes “Laramie” a Must-See!

“The Laramie Project” by Moisés Kaufman & Tectonic Theater Project, directed by Bermudez Sanders & Elio Amador, lighting by Colin Johnson, sound/video by Crystal Liu, scenic design by Rachel Dobos, at Theatre Rhinoceros, San Francisco.

Info: therhino.org – to June 29, 2025.

Cast: Dany Benitez, Michael DeMartini, Sarah “Eli” Hampton, Christian Jimenez, Zolboo Namkhaidorj, and Pati Shojaee.

Banner photo: Sarah “Eli” Hampton, Dany Benítez, Christian Jimenez, and Michael DeMartini. Photos: Little Boxes Theater