My name is Rachel Corrie

Went to see the above play last night with Hels an old university friend of mine. Its a production by Alan Rickman based (very closely) on the diary and emails of Rachel Corrie who went to act as a peacekeeper and human shield in the Palestine around 2001. The girl who acted as Rachel was fantastic! It was the opening night and she was word perfect. She kept up the monologue for 90 minutes, it was very impressive and you were always captivated.

It is a very depressing tale of the hell the palestinians are living through with regard to the fighting with Israel at the time. You really did get a sense of the injustice and purgatory the common, innocent, palestinian had to live with. It did not excuse the violence of the Hamas or the suicide bombers but it did reveal the plight of ordinary people caught up in a war they did not want or understand and that was out of their reach to control.

Rachel died standing in front of a bulldozer as it demolished yet another Greenhouse complex, one of the few left producing much needed vegetables and fruit for the common man.

At the end of the play you are left subdued, frustrated at the injustice and angry at the lack of humanity displayed by those in power, on both sides. The play is well worth going to as it does open your eyes and does play with your emotions, which i believe, all good plays should.