Corrie reading by invitation only

[Guest guest]

Rachel Corrie script is heard

 

Story of activist killed in Gaza

U of T reading by invitation only

Apr. 25, 2006. 06:23 AM

RICHARD OUZOUNIAN

THEATRE CRITIC

 

The script of My Name is Rachel Corrie, a

controversial play about the 23-year-old American

activist who died in Gaza during a political

demonstration in 2003, received a private reading

without incident at Hart House on the University of

Toronto campus Sunday night.

 

" It was successful, " said Paul Leishman, who directed

the reading with Marya Delver playing Corrie, " because

people sat back and really listened to Rachel's

story. "

 

While the play ran successfully in London for many

months, a proposed production at the New York Theatre

Workshop was cancelled shortly before its opening,

because of fears that it would exacerbate what the

theatre's director, James Nicola, called " an edgy

situation " within the Jewish community.

 

This cancellation sparked a worldwide controversy,

with heated voices being raised on both sides.

 

In light of that reaction, the Toronto organizers

decided to make Sunday night's reading by invitation

only.

 

The end result was what Leishman characterizes as " a

very civilized event where the play was really heard. "

The audience of about 50 were " from all

constituencies, which was exactly what we had

planned. "

 

Much of the play is not specifically about the

conflict in the Middle East, but about Corrie's

gradual political awareness.

 

She grew up in Olympia, Wash., and by the age of 10

was already writing about how " children everywhere are

suffering. " A teenage trip to Russia opened her eyes

to poverty in the world and started her on the road to

activism.

 

By 19, she was writing her mother that " I know I scare

you, but what would I write about if I only stayed

within the doll's house, the flower-world I grew up

in? "

 

The changing climate in America after the 9/11 attacks

escalated her feelings and her trip to Palestine was

another step in her journey. She was crushed to death

by an Israeli bulldozer while protesting the

demolition of housing on the Gaza Strip.

 

Debate still rages on whether the bulldozer driver's

actions were accidental or intentional. Organizers

hope the thoughtful reaction to Sunday's reading may

open the door in Toronto to a wider and more public

examination of the play and its issues.

 

Harold Pinter and 20 other Jewish writers raised an

interesting point in a letter they sent on March 20 to

the New York Times.

 

" What is it about Rachel Corrie's writings, her

thoughts, her feelings, her confusions, her idealism,

her courage, her search for meaning in life ? what is

it that audiences must be protected from? "

 

So far, nobody has come up with the answer.

 

Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited