my friend peter has been after me to write a review of ‘my name is rachel corrie’ playing at the tarragon theatre until june 22. we both saw a preview of it on the same night and he has an interesting review posted on his blog.
besides making excuses about busy I am with other things, I have also been avoiding committing to an online avowal of my feelings on the show for…other reasons. one of the major things holding me back is that im not sure how I felt about it. it’s great that it is (finally) being shown in
what is most shocking about rachel’s death is the somewhat anticlimactic-ness of it all. she’s alive, feeling depressed, sad and confused about her role in rafah and in the world, and then suddenly she’s dead…run over by an Israel Defense Force (IDF) bulldozer whose driver claims not to have seen her. of course, this sort of thing is relatively anti-climactic. in an environment where lives are lost to violence on a day to day basis, the loss of this one life in an act of heroism doesn’t quite garner the same amount of attention that some of us have been raised to believe should be bequeathed to a martyr.
the death of rachel corrie was incredibly tragic and the show demonstrates that Palestinian solidarity struggles, even when fronted by middle class white American kids, register as a minor blip against a military force that has over 160, 000 active military personnel backed by a budget of over $18 million dollars. however, what troubles me about the show (is it the show or the way i think the audience interprets it?) is the relative disconnect from the ongoing policy, not just of occupation, but of apartheid, that is being employed by
overall the show itself is entertaining, slow at the beginning, but picking up with some very nice work done by actor bethany jillard. but I think what is really tragic about ‘my name is rachel corrie’ is the fundamentally desperate grasp to empathize in some way to the ‘arab-israeli conflict’. that audiences in
I said earlier that rachel’s death in the show seems anticlimactic …and I think it is.
And maybe that’s the point.
Props to Theatre Panik for mounting My Name Is Rachel Corrie.
1 comment:
A bold and brave concluding statement.
I'm very excited for your fringe show.
Matt and I have decided to put a play on in August. I've been so inspired by Democracy, My Name is Rachel Corrie, and Minotaur. Right this moment, I think I figured out what it's going to be about.
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