My Name is Rachel Corrie

Published Thursday 28 April 2005 at 10:20 by Aleks Sierz

On 16 March 2003, Rachel Corrie was killed in Gaza by an Israeli Defence Force bulldozer. She was a middle-class American 23-year-old, part of the International Solidarity Movement protesting against Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.

My Name Is Rachel Corrie, as edited by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner from her diaries and emails, gives her idealistic reasons for going to Gaza and paints a vivid picture of her character. Seeing herself as a nomadic friend of the oppressed, she comes across as empathetic and passionate about injustice.

The show begins with her as a precocious teen who describes her untidy bedroom with all the pretentious flair of someone who has already decided to become a writer. It ends with an almost unbearably strident diatribe which says more about her political innocence than about the situation of the Palestinians.

For all her passion and youthful idealism, the Corrie of this monologue is an odd mix of attractive vivacity and unattractive naiveté. Although she is obviously very thorough about her work, recording the facts about the oppression that she witnesses, she sees the Palestinians only as victims and says not a word about suicide bombings.

Superbly directed by Alan Rickman, on Hildegard Bechtler’s set - which morphs from clothes-strewn bedroom to sun-baked Gaza - the evening is lit up by Megan Dodds’ engrossing performance. She gives 100% commitment to the role and then some. But, sadly, there’s nothing here that challenges the liberal consensus in British political theatre.