"My Name is Rachel Corrie" extends to 21 May 2006

"My Name is Rachel Corrie" extends to 21 May 2006

My Name is Rachel Corrie, has been extended by 2 weeks to 21 May 2006

The play opened at the Playhouse Theatre 30 March 2006, following previews from 28 March, to terrific notices from the popular press: "Admirable and exasperating" (Independent); "Elegantly edited and shaped" (Guardian); "I feared that Megan Dodds's slight, vital Rachel would come across as a naive idealist; but she doesn't" (Times).

The play was to have had its New York premiere at New York Theatre Workshop later this year, but was cancelled. James Nicola, the artistic director of New York Theatre Workshop, said in the Guardian: "In our pre-production planning and our talking around and listening in our communities in New York, what we heard was that after Ariel Sharon's illness and the election of Hamas in the recent Palestinian elections, we had a very edgy situation." The play's British director, Alan Rickman, denounced it as "censorship".

Developed by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner, from the writings of Rachel Corrie, this one-woman show is directed by Alan Rickman and features Megan Dodds .

It is designed by Hildegard Bechtler, lighting by Johanna Town, produced by David Johnson and Virginia Buckley.

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.

My Name is Rachel Corrie has previously had 2 runs at the Royal Court Theatre in 2005.