When young American human rights activist Rachel Corrie was bulldozed to death by occupying forces on the Gaza Strip in 2003, she might have ended up as one more statistic of a bloody and unnecessary conflict.
The survival of Rachel's diaries and their subsequent editing into a piece of solo verbatim theatre by actor Alan Rickman and journalist Katherine Viner ensured an immortalisation which gave voice to her generation.
A decade since Rachel's death, and eight years since her words were first heard on stage, and atrocities in Gaza are worse than ever. This makes this blistering revival of Ros Philips's production featuring Mairi Phillips as Rachel more pertinent than ever.
First seen at the Citizens Theatre in 2010, Philips' take on the play now heads out on a tour spearheaded by Mull Theatre in association with RT Productions and Sphinx Theatre. From the moment the audience walks through the metal door in the Tron's upstairs Changing House space, which is then is shut behind them, they are in Rachel's world, a world where a restless slacker kid high on pop culture and ideas develops a political conscience enough to take on a volatile and dangerous regime, only to become its victim. In a busy but always measured production, Phillips makes a vibrant presence, capturing Rachel's spirit with a nuanced precision that is devastating to watch in a production which has matured considerably to heart-stopping effect.
HHHH
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article