Bulldozed by Naiveté [WSJ Theater Critic Trashes Rachel Corrie Play]

Wall Street Journal ^ | October 21, 2006 | Terry Teachout

[L.N. Smithee]

NEW YORK--Politics makes artists stupid. Take "My Name Is Rachel Corrie," the one-woman play cobbled together from the diaries, emails and miscellaneous scribblings of the 23-year-old left-wing activist who was run over by an Israeli Army bulldozer in 2003 while protesting the demolition of a Palestinian house in the Gaza Strip. Co-written and directed by Alan Rickman, one of England's best actors, "Rachel Corrie" just opened off-Broadway after a successful London run. It's an ill-crafted piece of goopy give-peace-a-chance agitprop--yet it's being performed to cheers and tears before admiring crowds of theater-savvy New Yorkers who, like Mr. Rickman himself, ought to know better.

[L.N. Smithee]

How bad is the play? Says Teachout, it's worse than Tim Robbins' play. OUCH!

[edpc]

I wouldn't call it inspiring.....in fact, it left me feeling a bit flat.

[Dallas59]

WHAT ABOUT FOLEY?

[Allegra]

in fact, it left me feeling a bit flat.

LOL!

It left me craving a stack of pancakes.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

"My Name Is Rachel Corrie," by contrast, is a scrappy, one-sided monologue consisting of nothing but the fugitive observations of a young woman who, like so many idealists, treated her emotions as facts. "I am disappointed," she declares, "that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world."

None of asked to come into the world without being ruler of it. But some of us came to terms with the fact that other people have something to say about that . . . before we even got into grammar school.

[Kozak]

[YaYa123]

Alan Rickman...he plays such great, deranged movie villains, in Robin Hood, and Die Hard. Maybe his secret is, he isn't acting.

[Mercat]

don't forget Professor Snape.

[Future Snake Eater]

Yeah, Rickman is an amazing actor. Sounds like he shouldn't give up his day job!

[kjo]

It's just more anti-semitism packaged as 60s style give-peace-a-chance baloney.

[olezip]

IMO, I would guess that she is a product of today's public government schooling and incredibly unenlightened parents. Her parents probably concentrated on building up her self esteem. The play is more like abstract art and a testimony to her life, albeit an empty one.

[YaYa123]

shhhhh, don't tell anyone I'm Harry Potter illiterate.

[Aaron0617]

c'mon not a true Rachel Corrie thread without my favorite..

[visualops]

Raising children the liberal way seems, more often than not, to result in a narcissistic and grossly prideful person.

[Mercat]

I know it's my job to tell my granddaughter that there is more to life than polly pocket. sigh. We had a lot of fun with The Lion the Witch and the Wordrobe last year.

[martin_fierro]

[veronica]

Terror advocate dies in accident. Atrocious drama ensues...

*Snicker* At least the review is amusing. :)

[sportutegrl]

You forgot Dr. Lazarus in Galaxy Quest. My favorite role.

[WashingtonSource]

It's a morality tale about the consequences of being a left-wing moonbat. Unintentially, of course.

[hnj_00]

I think that a new play should be written about the catepillar bulldozer...how its feeling have been hurt ...maligned by the lib/dem muzzie loving left....

this is just as stupid as this play!!!

screw this dope usueful idiot of the muzzies...none even know her name and could care less about how she wasted her life.....

the true victim is catepilllar getting bad press....

otherwise....this shi-ite on off-broadway just portrays how bad plays are and how stupid people are in going and wasting money to see this crap!!!