Christine Dolen The Miami Herald

February 12, 2011

Christine Dolen
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, FL 33132-1693

RE: “The Laramie Project” – Your review this day and the questions never asked.

Ms. Dolen,

“Though the impulse behind revisiting
‘The Laramie Project’ and following
performances with talkback sessions is
admirable the result in this case is not.
The memory of Matthew Shepherd and
the audiences deserve much better.”
The Miami Herald
Today
You
[Italics yours]


Matthew Shepherd was a 19 year old homosexual who went to bar frequented by homosexuals. He was picked up by 2 barbaric non-homosexuals. He was beaten in a most savage manner and left to die hanging on a barbed wire fence.

Jesse Dirkhising was a 12 year old boy who was kidnapped by 2 feral homosexuals. Over 2 days he was repeatedly raped and sodomized with objects both organic and inorganic. He died by strangulation. The method chosen was gasoline soaked rag that was shoved down his throat.

Why one was deemed worthy of being compared to the Oedipus trilogy while the other is still waiting to be written is a both a testament and a condemnation to and of modern culture. Alas. but “Trousered Apes” now rule.

Your review concentrates completely on the production rather than on the play.

No would remember “My American Cousin” save for the fact that it was the play that Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated.

Is it possible to say the “The Laramie Project” is a bad play without having the dreaded Word Police asking you, while the chorus throws flaming bags of cat scat at you, “Are you now or have you ever been a homophobe”?

Into the Gehenna of Kumbaya plays let me include “Corpus Cristi”, “The Vagina Monologues”, and “Angels in America”.

It is bad enough that they are “bad” plays but they are oft times government funded “bad” plays. Let me rephrase that. They are taxpayer funded “bad” plays. Let me clarify that. The cry of “No Taxation without Representation” would apply to these “bad” plays with but a simple adjustment.

The fact is that no one has yet topped the Greeks when it comes to theatrical production of murder[s] most foul. I must add that the last scenes of “King Lear” and “Hamlet” are up and coming contenders.

If, as you say, the “talkback session” after the play ends is something to be admired how about a Q & A talback session on Antigone? What does one say about Goneril and Regan?

And why does no one mourn Jesse Dirkhising?




Kevin Smith