Gripping portrayal of Rachel’s tragic life
My Name is Rachel Corrie Market Theatre Until November 16 nity projects. We share her conflicted relationships with her parents and an obviously painful and abortive love affair.
At the age of 23 she goes to Gaza with an international team to support Palestinians threatened by the Israeli Defence Force, often acting as a human shield.
Two months later she is killed by a bulldozer while trying to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home.
Without a doubt, the fact that you know Rachel’s fate from the start adds immediacy to the story. The final part of the performance, when Liquorish counts down the days and shares some of the letters and e-mails Rachel sent home are particularly telling.
Obviously she believed fanatically in her work and had a driving need to make a difference, even more so as she could return at any time to her clean, safe, privileged home, leaving behind the constant fear and uncertainty that destroyed the lives of so many.
She paints a vivid picture of homes riddled with bullet-holes while families cowered in backrooms, livelihoods destroyed, children who know only fear, long queues at the checkpoints, holding banners under fire to protect water supplies …
The strain is starting to tell; her letters home are increasingly desperate. She talks of the future, dreaming of travelling to exotic places, but we know, as she does not, that the bulldozer is waiting and her fate is to tumble into darkness.
This is a gripping play, made so by Rachel herself as she lives on through the force and power of her writing, her thoughts and the sheer exuberance of her living.
It is a massive achievement for Liquorish to carry this work through its highs and lows, its spotlights and shadows. There are times when she gets too impassioned, her words tumbling so quickly that she loses us. There are times when I, for one, was not sure where she was going …
What is obvious from the start is that this is a story that deserves to be told.
My Name is Rachel Corrie was taken from the writings of Rachel Corrie, edited by Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner. It is a Hearts & Eyes production directed by Jaqueline Dommisse.