My Name is Rachel Corrie

There are many stories in life that stay with us, and the death of 23 year old Rachel Corrie from Olympia Washington, in 2003 whilst protesting the demolition of a Palestinian home in the Rafah refugee camp near the border with Egypt, is one that still resonates seven years later.

Corrie had travelled to Gaza to join protesters from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to initiate a “sister city” project between Olympia and Rafah, and was killed when acting as a human shield against an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) armed bulldozer and a Palestinian home.

At the time Corrie’s death attracted the kind of attention that the deaths of many Palestinians didn’t, creating an uncomfortable anti-colonialist reaction to her story. According to The Boston Globe, “Corrie… has been praised as a heroic martyr and denounced as a misguided, ill-informed naïf”.

Regardless, more than 30 songs were written about and dedicated to Rachel Corrie since 2003 by the likes of Patti Smith, Billy Bragg, Christy Moore, Jim Page, Ben Ellis, as well as groups such as Klimt 1918, Ten Foot Pole, and The Can Kickers (to name just some).

And then in 2005, My Name is Rachel Corrie, a play directed by British actor Alan Rickman, based on Corrie’s journals and e-mails from Gaza premiered in London. The work then experienced difficulty getting to the US (due to what would have been seen as possible anti-semitic sentiment), although it finally opened Off-Broadway in 2006. Subsequently the play has been published and performed in ten countries worldwide, including Israel.

This is a lot of information to take with you when heading to see this play, yet to my mind, this is a creative work that clearly needs to be contextualized.

The current Forty five Downstairs production of My Name is Rachel Corrie is being performed by Hannah Norris, and in terms of considering a one-woman show as a case for an artist’s ability, Norris’ work is memorable. Her efforts to present Rachel Corrie as an idealistic, impassioned activist are persuasive. For what seems to be close to two hours of performance Norris is compelling, and carefully manages the development of Corrie’s character from enthusiastic (hopeful) activist to steely campaigner – defending the rights of the families she knows in the Rafah refugee camp.

The packed box set by Cassandra Backler adds to the story’s sense of unsettlement and instability, and the final video of Rachel Corrie in a 5th grade speech, where she talks about peace remains a haunting memory.

The audience of course watches gripped by a narrative that ends tragically, and a history that we know as we leave the theatre is still unresolved and constantly unfolding in the daily headlines.>

Watch the ABC’s Dateline story on My Name is Rachel Corrie