Play About Rachel Corrie Delayed Due To Concerns Over "Political Content"

Everyone's favorite America-hating, bulldozer-dueling former human being, Rachel Corrie, has been elegized in a new play.

Chickpea in particular won't like this, but the play was written by seemingly cool guy but actual douche Alan ("Die Hard," "Robin Hood," some dumb British dramas no one watched) Rickman. And, just to add some balance to his pro-Palestinian, anti-Jew views, it was co-written by a reporter from the fair-and-balanced, down-the-line-objective Guardian UK.

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."

Some days it's really cool that Jews control the media.

Thanks to Andy the Squirrel and RLW.

In related news... I've been working on my own play about the subject, tenatively titled, "The Coolest, Luckiest Bulldozer In The Whole Wide World." I'm trying to get the guy who did the costumes for The Lion King to make me a cool-looking Bulldozer costume.

In my play, the Bulldozer is named "Nick 'Treads' Treadly," because that's a really kick-ass name. He's a loose-cannon maverick-rebel bulldozer who plays by his own rules, and who's always being chewed out by his operator.

Key quote: "Nick, you just drove over an anti-American, anti-Semitic protestor! I want your badge and your gun, now!"

Nick "Treads" Treadly: "I don't have a badge or a gun. I'm a bulldozer."

Sergeant: "Well you're suspended for month! Without pay!"

Nick: "You can suspend me. But you can't suspend Treads Justice."

I'm hoping to get a MacArthur Genius grant to finish & produce the play.

In the meantime, your donations can help get this work-of-the-heart off the floor.

posted by Ace at 01:06 PM

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