My Name is Rachel Corrie is a play based on the letters and diaries of the US peace activist killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003.
The play will run in Melbourne over November 3-14. This follows a sellout season at the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival.
In January 2003, Rachel Corrie travelled to Palestine as part of the International Solidarity Movement. She was part of a nonviolent protest against the State of Israel’s policy of demolishing Palestinian housing to expand Jewish settlement in the Occupied Territories.
At the time of her death, Corrie was kneeling between a Palestinian family’s home and a bulldozer. Fellow protesters used megaphones and hand signals, in desperate attempts to make the driver stop the machine. But it was to no avail.
Corrie was crushed and later died in hospital, motivating the Israeli military to lament her death as “a very regrettable incident”.
Corrie’s parents are currently involved in a civil lawsuit against the Israeli government for her unlawful killing. Their case claims that Corrie’s killing was intentional, and that the government is responsible for the negligent, reckless behaviour of the soldiers and commanders.
[My Name is Rachel Corrie will be performed at Melbourne’s fortyfivedownstairs, in Flinders Lane. For information and bookings, phone (03) 9662 9966 or email info@fortyfivedownstairs.com .
Interview with Corrie’s parents, discussing the court case.]