My Name is Rachel Corrie

Genre: Drama
Opened 30 March 2006
Written: Developed by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner, from the writings of Rachel Corrie
Directed: Alan Rickman
Produced: David Johnson and Virginia Buckley
Cast: Megan Dodds
Synopsis: Why did a 23-year-old woman leave her comfortable American life to stand between a bulldozer and a Palestinian home? Rachel Corrie was killed in the Gaza Strip in Palestine on March 16, 2003, trying to prevent the demolition of the home of a Palestinian pharmacist, his wife, and three young children. My Name is Rachel Corrie tells the story of her short life and sudden death, from the words she left behind.

What the critics had to say.....
PAUL TAYLOR for THE INDEPENDENT says, "We see the world through the eyes and prose of a skinny college kid who was equally passionately idealistic and self-absorbed, admirable and exasperating. The play is a self-portrait; a chronicle of a death foretold; a tribute to a courageous, compassionate spirit; and an eye-witness report of the horror of life in Gaza, where she went as a member of the International Solidarity Movement of non-violent resistance to the occupation." LYN GARDNER for THE GUARDIAN says, "Elegantly edited and shaped from Rachel's diaries and writings...and performed with egoless, unaffected simplicity by Megan Dodds." BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE for THE TIMES says, "I feared that Megan Dodds's slight, vital Rachel would come across as a naive idealist; but she doesn't. From the moment we meet her in her adolescent's bedroom, she exudes sophistication, wry humour and articulate intelligence as well as burning decency. What, she asks, is happening "the other end of our tax money"? And then her cosy room is replaced by pock-marked concrete, and she's discovering about curfews, checkpoints, snipers, corpses, tanks, destroyed greenhouses, impoverished lives, wrecked houses — and, fatally, bulldozers." SARAH HEMMING for THE FINANCIAL TIMES says, "The power of the piece arises from its honesty. It presents a shocked, first-hand account of conditions in Gaza, and it offers a portrait of a young woman who left her safe, liberal home to put herself in the line of fire." CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "Powerfully captures her journey from privileged student to the raw, real world of the Middle East."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Independent
The Guardian
The Times
Financial Times
Daily Telegraph