The Laramie Project: a hate crime depicted on stage

One of the banned events during last week´s Pride festival, was the theatrical production "The Laramie Project". But don't worry about missing it, you´ll get a new chance to watch it this weekend! The organizers have found a new venue, and the play can finally be showed at River South Art Center, on Friday and Saturday.

The play tells the story of a small town's reaction to one of America's most talked about hate crimes. Laramie was the site of the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21 year-old gay university student, who was found tied to a “buck” fence, beaten and unconscious in October 1998,. The accused: his two best friends Aaron and Russel.

Because of this, Matthew Shepard is now an icon in gay society.

This true story later became a play, created by Moisés Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theatre Project. Cityweekend had a great rundown about the process:

On November 14,1998, members of Tectonic Theatre Project traveled to Laramie, Wyoming, and conducted interviews with the people of the town. The Play is edited from those interviews, as well as from journal entries by members of the company. The Play is about the town of Laramie, its citizens, and their reaction to Matthew Shepard’s murder.

When the play is now visiting Shanghai, it´s under the creative wings of director Zsuzsi Lindsay and Zuloo Theatre Productions, based in St. Andrews, Scotland.

Zsuzsi Lindsay has previously, in 2004, directed the play Corpus Christi, who caused quite a stir when a group of Christian protesters in Scotland called on police to prosecute the theater company for blasphemy, because it was putting on a play about a gay Jesus. In Shanghai, she has brought us both a pantomime version of Cinderella and an English-language rendition of the Vagina Monologues.

Date: June 19 & 20
Time: cocktail opens at 7pm, show starts at 8pm
Address: River South Art Center, 3rd floor, 1247 Suzhou Nan Lu, near Xingchang lu
Directions: Metro line #1, XinZha station, exit 1, turn left, you should see a bridge in front of you, don't go on the bridge, take the walkway on the left hand side next to the bridge. It is a building on your left. Here's a link to a map if it helps make things clearer.
Price: 100RMB