ACT Reviews 2022-2023 Season

towards Matthew's murderer, Russell Henderson, which was no mean feat. John Cummings particularly stood out for me in his portrayal of Matthew's father, Dennis Shepard – his speech to the court ("He didn't have to die out there alone") to me fully embodied the theme of sadness with hope and I found it very moving. John also played the father of murderer Aaron McKinney, which I thought was an interesting choice having the same actor play both roles – to his credit, John was very believable in both. Lynne Atkinson played four quite brief roles but, as I have come to expect from Lynne having had the fortune to see her perform in several roles now, all were played strongly - Lynne's Judge was particularly commanding, bringing down justice onto the head of Russell Henderson. Stephen Dixon's four roles were quite diverse (especially DJ Shadow!) and it is to his credit that he was believable in all roles. Michael Mullen played only two roles (in addition to being a musician) but both are key to the message of the play – Father Schmidt, who promoted acceptance and preached against violence in all forms including verbal slurs, and Matthew Shepard's academic advisor Jon Peacock. Both parts were played with warmth and sympathy. Lynne Cummings also played two roles – Marge Murray and Sherry Johnson. Although both these roles were quite small, they brought the people of Laramie to life for the audience and helped give the perspective of different Laramie citizens on the events surrounding Matthew's murder. I have no doubt that this play presented a challenge to all concerned – for the actors, the challenge of playing multiple parts predominantly as monologues and for everyone the challenge of paying homage and doing justice to Matthew Shepard. Both challenges were more than surmounted and leaving the auditorium and seeing both the portrait of Matthew and the sign proclaiming "Hate is not a Laramie Value" I felt sure that had Matthew's loved ones been able to watch this production they would have felt you had done him justice and created a little more hope and acceptance to share with the world. Thank you everyone for a very moving and thought-provoking evening.