Two related plays based on a shocking crime that made international headlines will soon be seen in Canberra.

Mockingbird Theatre is presenting two Canberra premieres. The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later is having its first production in Canberra, and in addition it will be presented in repertory with its predecessor, The Laramie Project, as their combined length is over four hours. People can see the plays separately on different nights or spaced apart on the same day. Producer, director and actor Chris Baldock says the plays "work on a profoundly human level as well as being highly theatrical".

One of his three previous productions of The Laramie Project won the Victorian Green Room award for best independent production. He says it is "the most important play I have ever done and speaks volumes to the power and relevance of theatre."

He adds, "It's part of my DNA."

Both plays are verbatim theatre pieces with eight actors playing more than 50 characters. The plays were created by playwright Moises Kaufman and members of New York's Tectonic Theatre Project, which Kaufman co-founded, out of hundreds of interviews they conducted with citizens of the town of Laramie, Wyoming.

Kaufman and the others' interest stemmed from the grisly murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998 and its aftermath. On the night of October 6, Shepard, 21, was fatally wounded near Laramie after leaving a bar. The gay University of Wyoming student was robbed, beaten, tied to a fence, set on fire and left to die by two young men, Aaron McKenney and Russell Henderson.

The following morning a passing cyclist noticed the comatose Shepard, who was taken to hospital but never regained consciousness. He died on October 12, 1998.

McKenney received two life sentences without the possibility of parole and and Henderson received two consecutive life sentences.

A few weeks after the murder, Kaufman and company went to Laramie - a town of about 26,000 people - for the first set of interviews, discussing people's still-raw reactions to the murder and the subsequent media storm.

The Laramie Project was the result. Its dozens of "characters" include the policewoman who untied Shepard from the fence, the bartender who last saw him alive and the grandmother of one of the killers.

Ten years later, the members of the theatre project returned to conduct more interviews, looking at what, if anything, had changed and how people were now dealing with everything that happened.

Out of this came The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later.

Baldock says the first play is more about the personal aspects of what happened and the second, which came after its predecessor had been widely performed and publicised, is more political. Some of the townsfolk were wary or defensive. Many of the second play's voices are new, others are returning - including former college professor Cathy Connolly, who became the first openly gay member of the Wyoming state legislature.

Baldock says the threatricalised Laramie story "always evokes so much discussion and debate. People have different opinions on what the different characters have to say."

For the actors playing the many people, he says, "the most important thing is not to judge" but to use voice, attitude and physicality to make each one live.

Baldock says that while Shepard's murder led to an outcry and hate-crime legislation, there is still much to be done. These two plays are a reminder of that.