My Name is Rachel Corrie

05/03/2010

Powerful performance kept in the dark @ Citizens, Glasgow

My Name is Rachel Corrie
Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
2/5

This one-woman play is based on the diaries and e-mails of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American who went to aid Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and in March 2003 was killed by an Israeli bulldozer. 

The political play begins when Rachel is 12 with her first diary entry. She dances in her underwear around her untidy room that has posters of her idols plastered all over the walls and we see the compulsive list maker trying to discover who she is and what she wants from life.

Her humorous teenage entries are surprisingly eloquent and help the audience get to know Rachel and subsequently relate to and like her. “I discovered boys when I was five years old. It didn’t make my life easier but it made it a whole lot more interesting.”

As the play goes on her attitude and behavior changes and she matures in front of us. She goes from “My room is art. I have all these amazing posters of my idols all over my walls,” to “Oh my God, I’ve glued things to my wall.”

There are confusing elements to the play. The significance of having five lamps that get placed in different areas of the stage throughout the play is unclear. They seem to represent children one minute then have no importance the next.

Rachel’s detailed description of her time in Israel and the oppression she witnesses can sometimes be overwhelming. Facts are thrown at you with little time to process them however, they successfully humanize Palestinian people. The intense dialogue means you have to really concentrate on what is being said and with so many distractions such as loud music coming on randomly throughout the show this is hard to do.

The general lighting effects are poor and do not create atmosphere or build tension in the way it clearly tries to. However, Scottish actress Mairi Phillips performance is powerful and engrossing. She gives 100 per cent commitment to the role and distracts you from weaker elements of the production.

My Name is Rachel Corrie doesn’t challenge the open-minded consensus in British political theatre and for such a unique story with so much potential this is disappointing.

By Beth Eckserley