[Peace-discuss] Cultural censorship

[Morton K. Brussel]

Outrageous!  --mkb

On Mar 1, 2006, at 7:59 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> [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.
>
>   ###
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