THEATER REVIEW
'My Name Is Rachel Corrie'
By
Deirdre Sinnott
Published Nov 8, 2006 5:11 PM
"My Name is Rachel Corrie," from the writings
of Rachel Corrie, edited by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner;
Minetta Lane Theater, New York City, Oct. 15 through Nov.
19.
Quiet and immovable, the battered concrete walls that define the
set sit like an ancient Greek chorus, judging the actions of the
humans whose lives are played out before them. We know when we
walk into the theater that Rachel Corrie died while attempting to
protect a cement home from the heavy and unforgiving blade of an
Israeli bulldozer. The monoliths evoke both that house and the
wall that Israel is building through Palestine.
Corrie joined the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) Jan.
25, 2003, and died 50 days later on March 16 in Rafah, a town in
the West Bank that borders Egypt. The ISM is a group that
organizes volunteers from all over the world to take an active,
but nonviolent role in defense of the Palestinian people, their
homes, farms, water sources; and to act as witnesses and media
conduits to the daily struggle to survive under Israeli
occupation.
On one side of the stage concrete rubble litters the perimeter
and on the other sits Rachel’s warm bedroom in Olympia,
Wash. It’s the series of warm bright tones—red wall
covered with photos and clippings from magazines, and a
comfortable bed with a flowered quilt—that contrast with the
stark coldness of her future.
Rachel, played wonderfully by Megan Dodds, talks about her life
while she proceeds to pack away all of the symbols of girlhood:
fashion magazines, books, a tumble of clothing (including some
silly, silver, sparkling boots), family photos, a radio, and the
lamp that looks like any bought in the local five-and-dime store.
She pulls her bed offstage and shoves the red wall aside, fully
revealing the stark reality for many people in the occupied
territories of Palestine.
Rachel has just moved from the land of safety to the war
zone.
The play isn’t just a coming of age story; it is one
person’s transformation from idealist to materialist.
Rachel finds the facts of life seriously challenging her
long-held beliefs about human nature.
She writes a long e-mail to her mother explaining her shifting
ideas: "For a long time I’ve been operating from a
certain core assumption that we are all essentially the same
inside, and that our differences are by and large situational.
That goes for everybody—Bush, Bin Laden, Tony Blair, me, you,
Sarah, Chris, Dad, Gram, Palestinians, everybody of any
particular religion.
"I know there is a good chance that this assumption actually
is false. But it’s convenient, because it always leads to
questions about the way privilege shelters people from the
consequences of their actions. It’s also convenient because
it leads to some level of forgiveness, whether justified or
not."
The play, a series of journal entries and e-mails, was edited by
actor Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner, a long-time editor for
the Guardian newspaper of London. After two successful runs in
London, the production prepared to move to New York City to
appear Off-Broadway at New York Theater Workshop, when it was
suddenly canceled.
So why is the moving story of one person who died in an area that
has seen so many deaths controversial? Artistic Director James
Nicola of the NYTW “postponed” a scheduled production
of the play (it was going to open March 22) when he
“discovered how deeply ingrained the attitudes were on all
sides and what a marketing and contextualizing challenge this
posed.” (playgoer.blogspot.com) Katharine Viner called
Nicola’s move “censorship for political reasons.
... We always felt passionately that it was a piece of work that
needed to be seen in the United States.” (Los Angeles
Times, March 1)
Luckily when Pam Pariseau and Dena Hammerstein of the Minetta
Lane Theater saw the show in London, they thought, "God, it
would be so amazing to present that Off-Broadway so that New York
theatergoers would have that same experience.” (New York
Times, June 22) The show opened on Oct. 15 to favorable
reviews.
But the issue is bigger than the self-censorship practiced by
NYTW. It’s the same issue that Rachel Corrie died for:
Palestinian self-determination. The issue of the Middle East,
especially regarding Israel and Palestine, is subject of much
argument worldwide. However, the thing that motivated Rachel
Corrie was the fact that the United States supports Israel with
billions of dollars every year. Rachel said that she wanted to
join the ISM in Gaza “to meet the people who are on the
receiving end of our [U.S.] tax dollars.”
The U.S. government has always had various reasons for supporting
Israel, many of which have nothing to do with “supporting
democracy” or fighting anti-Semitism. Former Secretary of
State Alexander Haig reportedly said that “Israel is the
largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be
sunk, does not carry even one American soldier, and is located in
a critical region for American national security.”
The reason why the region is so critical is oil. Oil is not
simply an extremely valuable commodity; it is a strategic
resource and one that the U.S. has struggled to control for most
of the last century. By having a client and dependent state in
the Middle East, the U.S. has been able to project its
considerable interests there. While some claim that powerful
lobbies control U.S. policy toward Israel, it is actually the
other way around. If the billions of U.S. dollars that pour into
Israel each year were withdrawn, the government there might
collapse. That fact makes the U.S. complicit in Israeli actions,
be they bombing civilian targets in Lebanon or bulldozing
Palestinian homes in Gaza. Rachel Corrie felt that complicity
deep in her heart when she stood before the U.S.-made bulldozer
and tried to stop it from destroying a friend’s home.
Some argue that the ISM is a pawn of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the
Al-Aqsa Brigades. However, the founders of the ISM see themselves
as nonviolent activists carrying out civil disobedience. Their
mission statement reads: “As enshrined in international law
and UN resolutions, we recognize the Palestinian right to resist
Israeli violence and occupation via legitimate armed struggle.
However, we believe that nonviolence can be a powerful weapon in
fighting oppression and we are committed to the principles of
nonviolent resistance.” (www.palsolidarity.org) The group
is by no means monolithic; various activists from all over the
world bring their own views, experiences and analysis to the
actions that they take. Rachel Corrie was both distinctly North
American and an emerging internationalist. Several ISM volunteers
have been injured by Israeli Defense Forces, including Tom
Hurndall, who died after being shot in the head.
(wikipedia.org)
Most cable television viewers who have taken the time to watch
the BBC news or news shows from other European countries notice a
stark difference in the way the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is
presented. The European stations talk about the devastating
effect of attacks and incursions by the vastly superior Israeli
military on civilian populations in Palestine. Any such news
coverage in the U.S. is muted in a false attempt to put an equal
sign between the violence of the oppressor and the resistance of
the oppressed.
The question we in the United States must ask is: how can we stop
the use of our taxes to oppress people in Palestine, Iraq, Latin
America, Africa, Asia or anywhere else, including here at
home?
In what would be a final e-mail to her mother, Rachel Corrie put
it this way: "What we are paying for here is truly evil.
Maybe the general growing class imbalance in the world and
consequent devastation of working people’s lives is a
bigger evil. Being here should make me more aware of what it
means to be a farmer in [Colombia], for example. ... This has to
stop. I think it is a good idea for all of us to drop everything
and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think
it’s an extremist thing to do any more. ...
"Disbelief and horror is what I feel. Disappointment. I am
disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that
we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked
for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the
people here asked for when they came into this world. This is not
what they are asking for now. This is not the world you and Dad
wanted me to come into when you decided to have me. This is not
what I meant when I was two and looked at Capitol Lake and said,
'This is the wide world and I’m coming to
it.'”
Rachel’s life and determination have been preserved by her
words and the generosity of her family for sharing them with the
world. Rachel’s death was not more or less important than
any person’s who has died in the conflict, but luckily she
was a passionate and prolific writer. She filled her life with
the struggle for justice and "My Name is Rachel Corrie"
fills the stage with vitality and meaning.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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