"My Name Is Rachel Corrie" Makes It to Off-Broadway (Boston Globe Review)

[Hissyspit]

(Mods, this post is as much about censorship in art as anything.)

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2006/10/15/review_rachel_corrie_an_uneven_work/



In this photo provided by Barlow-Hartman Public Relations, Megan Dodds stars as the title character in ``My Name is Rachel Corrie,'' now playing at off-Broadway's Minetta Lane Theatre. (AP Photo/Barlow-Hartman Public Relations/Stephen Cummiskey)

Review: 'Rachel Corrie' an uneven work
By Michael Kuchwara, AP Drama Critic | October 15, 2006

NEW YORK --"My Name Is Rachel Corrie" is theatrically and politically earnest, an uneven scrapbook drama about an idealistic, some might say naive, young woman trying to do good against the backdrop of the swirling, seemingly insolvable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The play, which opened Sunday at off-Broadway's Minetta Lane Theatre, has arrived here with considerable non-theatrical baggage. Amid charges of censorship, a production planned for last spring by New York Theatre Workshop never happened. It subsequently was picked up for a limited run this fall by other producers.

- snip -

The play, a hit for London's Royal Court Theatre, was put together by British actor Alan Rickman (who also directs this production), and Katherine Viner, features editor of The Guardian newspaper in London. They drew on the diaries, letters and e-mails of Corrie, a 23-year-old activist from Olympia, Wash., who died when struck by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in March 2003 while trying to prevent Israelis from demolishing a Palestinian home. She had gone to the Middle East with the International Solidarity Movement.

- snip -

That passion comes through most forcefully late in the evening, in a raging e-mail Corrie types about the consequences of doing nothing: "It is my own selfishness and will to optimism that wants to believe that even people with a great deal of privilege don't just idly sit by and watch," she writes.

Rachel Corrie refused to just watch.

MORE

[Ken Burch]

1. Finally.

There was never an excuse for the concerted campaign to stop this piece from being performed in New York.

MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE is not "Anti-Israel". It is pro-truth.

[mmonk]

2. I'm glad some producers decided to pick it up.

I received alot of criticism here for supporting her effort, but no matter what one thinks of the subject of her death or her, it's a human story that needs to be told.

[Tom Joad]

3. Peace takes courage.

Rachel had that. I never met her, but i have met her parents. Remarkable people. (and her mom looks like Rachel).

I also, shortly before she was murdered, met A., who was with Rachel when she died. We didn't know then that she was going to witness not only one friends senseless killing but two. She was also with Tom Hurndall, when he was fatally shot by an Israeli soldier/terrorist (soldier was convicted of murder). Alice also knew Brian Avery, as we all worked together in Nablus. Brian's face was blown away by another IDF terrorist.

I do wonder how A. is doing now. That's gotta hurt for a long time. It hurt also to see how the people who provide such wonderful hospitality for us, are treated each and every day by the Occupation Army.

[oblivious]

4. Thanks for that anecdote. I'm humbled by their courage and dedication...

to peace and justice.

[xchrom]

5. yay!!!

[Lithos]

6. Locking per I/P guidelines

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