AMSTERDAM, NL: Orange Theater Company will debut the first-ever Amsterdam production of The Laramie Project in a new version by American writer Kiefer Lloyd (he/him). The production is directed by Irish-born, London-based director Shane Dempsey (National Theatre’s Hamlet, Translations; Donmar Warehouse’s My Future).
Lloyd is the first writer in the play’s 25-year history to be granted permission to adapt the landmark work, originally created by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project.
Devised verbatim from interviews recorded in Laramie, Wyoming after the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, The Laramie Project is a cornerstone of queer history and documentary theatre. Lloyd’s adaptation remains faithful to the original’s structure and intent, reframing it for today’s audience—an audience still grappling with homophobia, hatred, and a regressive political climate. Lloyd creates an entirely new ending for the piece, placing homophobic hate crimes in context with those motivated by race, and throwing into sharp focus the near-universal lack of effective political action.
‘For years, the debate surrounding Matthew Shepard’s murder was whether or not it was motivated by hate. That’s no longer even a question,’ Lloyd says. ‘The original Laramie asked how such an evil thing could happen to good, normal people, in a good, normal town. The new version answers—like this. And it’ll keep happening if we don’t change.’
Lloyd is an award-winning English-language screenwriter and Lambda Literary playwriting fellow. His connection to the work is deeply personal; he lived the majority of his childhood in rural Wyoming, in the years immediately following Shepard’s murder—insight made all the more critical by distance, migration, and work in queer communities. He now lives and writes in the Netherlands.
The production opens at Orange Theater Company in November of 2025. Tickets and more information can be found at orangetheatrecompany.com.