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Nessa Trenton plays a Muslim university student from Laramie in The Laramie Project.(Nick Pearce Photo)

Could Dalhousie鈥檚 up-and-coming actors be courting controversy with The Laramie Project? The play is unusual not just in the sense that it鈥檚 based on the aftermath of a real event鈥攖he brutal murder of gay university student Matthew Shepard鈥攂ut it goes a step further: almost all of the dialogue comes directly from the mouths of the residents of Laramie, Wyoming, where the murder took place 10 years ago.

The result is a unique piece of documentary theatre that weaves together the views of 66 non-fictional characters (played by 16 actors) into a cohesive whole. Director Christian Barry says the perspectives the play presents are far from homogenous.

While the play takes a non-judgemental stance, theatregoers tend to respond strongly; news of the students鈥� choice of production has already fanned the flames of controversy. Ryan Jewkes, one of the fourth-year student actors, says that some people have expressed concern that The Laramie Project is 鈥渁nti-religious鈥� or 鈥渁 gay play.鈥� Not only that, he has even received a flyer in the mail from a concerned citizen, who advises people not to see it.

Examples like this are exactly what the play seeks to explore: the diverse, contradictory, sometimes heated responses of a community.聽 As Mr. Barry points out, 鈥渋t puts the responsibility on the audience to consider their own community as the sum of its diverse parts鈥β� You can鈥檛 say Halifax is the kind of town where this sort of thing doesn鈥檛 happen, because you can鈥檛 speak for everybody.鈥�

For the troupe of actors who have the task of representing 66 real people, the play presents both a challenge and a unique opportunity.聽 鈥淚t鈥檚 an actor鈥檚 dream, because all of my characters are so different,鈥� says Mr. Jewkes. But his fellow performer, Nessa Trenton, adds that 鈥渨e鈥檙e very conscious of the fact that these are real people and real stories, so we are trying to approach it with a lot of sensitivity.鈥�

Finding it in themselves to relate to characters whose views they might be at odds with is inevitably one of the more challenging aspects of performing such a play; yet Mr. Barry stresses that, in the tradition of Brecht, 鈥渋t鈥檚 not necessarily incumbent upon the actor to mimic the character to the point where the audience would be distracted by that鈥� We鈥檙e not looking to give complete portrayals, but rather the essence 鈥� it leaves part of it to the audience, so they鈥檙e invited to participate via their imaginations.鈥�