Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...What emerges in the sensitive and detailed performances of the eight members of the ensemble (who all play multiple roles) is a sense of confusion and remorse, tempered with civic pride in the incremental changes that have occurred. Laramie now has an AIDS walk and a "Drag queen bingo AIDS benefit," one resident points out. And in one of the most moving sequences, Cathy Connolly (Lisa Herceg), a gay women's studies professor at the University of Wyoming and a newly elected member of the Wyoming legislature, witnesses a bill that would amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage go down in defeat — with crucial help from a conservative Republican (Gene Cordon), who speaks movingly of his gay daughter."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...Directed with compassion and clear-eyed restraint by Downers Grove resident Greg Kolack — who made his own pilgrimage to Laramie to interview some of the individuals depicted in the play — redtwist’s production is a wonderfully articulated, superbly cast show."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Based on interviews, media accounts, and journal entries, Ten Years Later preaches to the choir as it celebrates the progress of LGBT rights, including passage of federal hate-crimes legislation. The most compelling scene in Greg Kolack's intimate, well-paced production re-creates a chilling jailhouse confession by Shepard's unapologetically homophobic killer, played by the excellent Matthew Klingler."
Examiner - Highly Recommended
"...The piece is pocked with fine performances. As a lesbian drama professor who makes a successful run for the state legislature, Lisa Herceg is affects just the right amount of flourish and wry, determined outrage. Matt Babbs brings telling, subtle detail to numerous roles, including a haunted, defeated Anderson and a gay university employee contending with a deep well of frustration and anger."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later is interesting rather than exciting. It's not an entirely fresh reality check, in part because it spends much time reminding folks of the original conclusions in the case. The show also notes the election of a lesbian to the Wyoming legislature, the unexpected defeat by the legislature of a defense-of-marriage act and—above all—the passage of federal hate-crimes legislation (the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Act). However, the long digression about the Wyoming legislature is linked only indirectly to the Shepard case and seems curiously off-point."
Centerstage - Recommended
"... It’s powerful stuff, with great performances especially from Gene Cordon as O’Malley and others. Matthew Klingler offers an appropriately chilling turn as the murderer Aaron McKinney."
Edge - Recommended
"...Directed by Greg Kolack, the show captures the breadth of the research, interviews, and background gathered by the theater company in a compact space and time frame. Each transition from character or interview subject is announced to help the audience keep track of a truly dazzling number of characters."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...With eight actors playing multiple roles, Greg Kolack’s production moves smoothly and clearly conveys large amounts of information. Some of the characterizations are more exaggerated than necessary for a docudrama in Redtwist’s intimate space, but the versatile ensemble effectively portrays a town trying to escape its past."
WBEZ - Highly Recommended
"...The Shepherd murder may seem like old hat to you; but in a political setting where the Big Lie seems an established mode of operation, a play about how lies take hold is stunningly current."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later could use a bit of streamlining in the script and polishing in the production – concurrent voices, stuttered lines and flickering lights created missed opportunities for moments of greater poignancy and transcendence. Still, the show should be seen for its sheer volume of facts, viewpoints and for its insights that have the potential to help us change for the better."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...It could have happened anywhere, but it happened there. It could have happened to anyone, but it happened to him. It could be ignored and dismissed under the weight of a decade of fatigue, or it could still be the catalyst for change that America still so desperately needs. Stories like Tyler Clementi’s and countless other stories of bullying demonstrate we’re in danger of backsliding. Martyrdom—requested or forced—requires that those left in its wake take up the mantle of the worthy cause. Laramie is a moving and honest drama that looks unflinchingly into an uncomfortable anniversary. It galvanizes a forgetful world, reminding us that the journey into the future begins only when we can fearlessly acknowledge the past."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...Perhaps it is too much to expect the return to Laramie to be as potent as the original journey. But by initiating the conversation about Matthew Shepard's death, hate crimes, and bullying in schools and theaters all across America, I believe Moisés Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Company have changed the arc of our history."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Highly Recommended
"... This show is a documentary in 3-D. Under the expert direction of Greg Kolack, the eight member ensemble morph into an entire community. Slipping on a vest or glasses, the actor becomes another person. The interviews seamlessly combine for a comprehensive review of the good, bad and the apathetic. The back and forth viewpoints between ‘Laramie is a town not a project’ and the ongoing fight for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning) rights is riveting."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"... What makes this show effective is the warmth of each performer as they take on the personas of the people who lived through this. The people who knew what really took place and those who wanted to think it was only a robbery that went wrong. The lighting by Christopher Burpee and the sound by Rachel Spear added to the moods as created by the story and Kolack. The set is really nothing compared to the story being told as it is only some chairs that are moved about as scenes go from one to another. This is not a typical production with sets, costumes and props that are meaningful to telling of the story.In fact, this is the purest form of story-telling; 8 solid actors doing what the do best!"
Huffington Post - Highly Recommended
"...I fully realize I haven't devoted much space to analyzing Redtwist's production in this review, but here is all you need to know: see this production. It's why we go to the theatre, folks. It slaps us awake and forces us to examine how we can support change not only as individuals, but as a community."
Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended
"... Happily, Tectonic’s “Laramie Projects” provide a powerful cautionary tale, a learning curve that rises to the occasion. Despite the town’s denial, a “new normal” has changed Laramie forever—and the nation. Matthew, who never sought martyrdom or sainthood, got no justice that night but at least his murderers’ lives are stunted forever. Tectonic and Redtwist’s triumph is to try to dig some good out of unfathomable evil. Theater, as always, appeals to our better angels. Redtwist deserves kudos for speaking so much truth to hate."
