Adrienne Smook in My Name is Rachel Corrie

DETAILS

My Name is Rachel Corrie by Sage Theatre
Pumphouse Theatre
Thursday, November 15 - Saturday, November 24

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A play without a playwright, My Name is Rachel Corrie is based entirely on the journal entries and e-mail correspondence of a 23-year-old woman, who, concerned with the state of turmoil in the world, decided to make a difference. Working for the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine, she was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer in March 2003 as she attempted to protect the home of a Palestinian doctor from being razed to the ground.

It’s rare for a play to stir up controversy, but this one garnered international attention when its off-Broadway production — scheduled to open at the New York Theatre Workshop in March 2006 following a long successful run in London with the Royal Court Theatre — was cancelled for dubious political reasons. Artistic director James Nicola said to the Guardian that the election of the Hamas and Ariel Sharon’s coma had created a “very edgy situation” that led them to postpone the production. “We found that our plan to present a work of art would be seen as us taking a stand in a political conflict that we didn’t want to take,” he says.

Instead of avoiding political turmoil, the play’s indefinite postponement fuelled mass criticism. Hollywood actor and director of the U.K. production, Alan Rickman (who co-edited the script based on Corrie’s e-mails and journal entries with editor Katherine Viner from the Guardian), was quoted in the same publication as saying: “This is censorship born out of fear, and the New York Theatre Workshop, the Royal Court, New York audiences — all of us are the losers.”

While some blamed the Jewish community, the New York Times published a letter on March 22, 2006 signed by renowned authors Stephen Fry, Gillian Slovo and Nobel Prize-winning author Harold Pinter: “We are Jewish writers who supported the Royal Court production of My Name is Rachel Corrie. A theatre with such a fine history should have had the courage to give New York theatregoers the chance to experience her story for themselves.”

In the midst of all this uproar, Calgary’s Sage Theatre director Ian Prinsloo tracked down the script. “That’s when I saw what a wonderfully created story this was, and I had a great desire to see this story realized,” he says.

After nearly one year and much persistence, Sage Theatre was finally awarded rights to the play, securing the Canadian premier of this much-discussed production that was originally scheduled to be performed in Toronto on the CanWest Stage during the 2007-08 season, until artistic producer Martin Bragg told the CBC that it was cancelled for lack of artistic merit. “It just didn’t work onstage,” he said, after seeing it in New York.

Sage director Ian Prinsloo isn’t concerned. “I’ve seen lousy productions of great plays all over the world,” he says regarding the production’s lukewarm reviews. “They were obliged to do it to save their reputation, and that’s not a good way to go into any creative process.”

Although Sage Theatre’s artistic director Kelly Reay acknowledges the politics involved in the play, he emphasizes that the real focus should be Corrie’s passion and dedication to making a positive impact on the world. “To us, it’s more about the story of one passionate young person who knows the world is screwed up and is trying to make a difference,” he says.

Commanding the stage during this tough one-woman show will be dynamite performer and Sage artistic associate Adrienne Smook. “I think that her story is an inspiring one and I hope that it inspires people to become active in some way, even if it’s just a few hours of volunteering in their local community centre...”says Smook as seriously as she can, while her young son pinches her nose between rehersals.

Sage Theatre will put on 12 performances of My Name is Rachel Corrie at the cozy Joyce Dolittle Theatre. With only 65 seats and a couple years of buzz, tickets are sure to sell out fast. As well, each play will end with a moderated talk-back session. “You have to go see it because (she had) an interesting life, and you should go engage with this interesting life. She has a unique and interesting conversation with people every night, and I think good conversations are what we lack in our lives,” says Prinsloo.