The Laramie Project play premiered at the Wray Theater Nov. 3, running through Nov. 6, and did not hold back in stirring up emotions. It held up a mirror to our society, forcing the viewer to self-reflect.

The play depicted the aftermath of the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student that was murdered in the small town of Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. An acting troupe from New York City wrote a screenplay after conducting 200 interviews with the townsfolk, friends, and loved ones of Shepard.

The set aimed to transport the audience to Laramie and succeeded for the most part; every piece of wooden furniture felt authentic. You could feel the small town vibe from the worn out cracks on the wooden fence that were displayed. Both the good and the less-fortunate sides of what it would be like growing up in a town like this were showcased in this play. The TV screens used on set implemented various images of the Fireside bar, a church, and sound effects that set the atmosphere right after the fallout of the murder. Scene changes felt seamless and smooth, along with the quick characters changes.

Everything about the characters was believable, down to their accents and costumes. On the fly, you could hear one actor sound like a worn down detective one second and  a powerful preacher in the next. Snippets of good old-fashioned quirky humor flashed through every once in awhile, breaking up the heaviness of the play. It was amazing to see the actors transform which is best in LA into different characters such as a welcoming bartender, then the hate-filled Fred Phelps. The performances were great across the board, with some actors even portraying up to five characters.

Stand-out moments and emotional tear jerkers were found throughout the performance, such as the scene with Dr. Cantway expressing his overwhelming compassion for both the victim and the accused along with the scene in which Jon Peacock is overwhelmed by grief and sadness when visiting the spot of Sheppard’s death. An especially emotional scene in which Shepard’s father gives a heart wrenching speech expressing why he wishes life for his son to his son’s murderers. So many moments had you enthralled and engrossed in what was unfolding upon the stage, it wasn’t hard to imagine how much work the actors and crew put into the play with just the raw unfiltered emotion into every scene.

The play captured society as a whole, and put an unapologetic spotlight on it, whether we like it or not. It painted the story of a murder that happened 18 years ago, and showed that it could still have an impact on us today, considering how divided America is currently. Although we are doing better with the acceptance of the LGBT+ community, we still have a long way to go.