[Peace-discuss] Cultural censorship

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This play won the best new play prize at this year's
Theatregoers' Choice Awards in London, but it won't be seen in
New York.   --CGE]

  Play About Demonstrator's Death Is Delayed  
  By JESSE McKINLEY
  New York Times: February 28, 2006

A potential Off Broadway production of "My Name Is Rachel
Corrie," an acclaimed solo show about an American demonstrator
killed by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to stop the
destruction of a Palestinian home, has been postponed because
of concerns about the show's political content.
The production, a hit at the Royal Court Theater in London
last year, had been tentatively scheduled to start
performances at the New York Theater Workshop in the East
Village on March 22. But yesterday, James C. Nicola, the
artistic director of the workshop, said he had decided to
postpone the show after polling local Jewish religious and
community leaders as to their feelings about the work.

"The uniform answer we got was that the fantasy that we could
present the work of this writer simply as a work of art
without appearing to take a position was just that, a
fantasy," he said.

In particular, the recent electoral upset by Hamas, the
militant Palestinian group, and the sickness of Ariel Sharon,
the Israeli prime minister, had made "this community very
defensive and very edgy," Mr. Nicola said, "and that seemed
reasonable to me."

The play, which received strong reviews in London, follows the
story of Rachel Corrie, an idealistic American demonstrator
and Palestinian-rights activist who was crushed to death in
March 2003 in the Gaza Strip.

The play was written by the actor Alan Rickman, who directed
the piece, and Katherine Viner, a journalist at The Guardian
newspaper in London, who pieced together snippets of Ms.
Corrie's journals and e-mail messages to create the script.
And while the show had not been formally announced, Ms. Viner
said yesterday that she and Mr. Rickman had already bought
plane tickets to see the production at the workshop.

"I was devastated and really surprised," Ms. Viner said in a
telephone interview from London. "And in my view, I think
they're misjudging the New York audience. It's a piece of art,
not a piece of agitprop."

But Mr. Nicola said he was less worried about those who saw
the show than those who simply heard about it.

"I don't think we were worried about the audience," he said.
"I think we were more worried that those who had never
encountered her writing, never encountered the piece, would be
using this as an opportunity to position their arguments."

Mr. Nicola said that he still hoped to produce the play during
the 2006-7 season but that he hadn't heard back from the Royal
Court yet. A call for comment to the Royal Court's general
manager, Diane Borger, was not returned.

"It seemed as though if we proceeded, we would be taking a
stand we didn't want to take," he said.

  ###