International stage sensation coming to Courtenay

It has moved audiences around the world to laughter, tears, and debate. Now the acclaimed and controversial play "My Name is Rachel Corrie" comes to Courtenay for one performance only on Friday, Sept. 25th.

Based on the writings of the young Olympia, Washington woman whose short life has inspired millions, "My Name is Rachel Corrie" asks a potent question: what inspired Corrie, age 23, to abandon her comfortable life to work in the Gaza Strip, and ultimately stand between an Israeli bulldozer and a Palestinian home? The answers make for a gripping and powerful piece of theatre.

First produced in London in 2005, in an adaptation for the stage by actor Alan Rickman and British journalist Katharine Viner, the play was widely praised and later transferred to the West End. Wrote Time Out magazine: "Funny, passionate, bristling with idealism and humanity, Corrie emerges as a bona fide hero for this brutalized world of ours."

A scheduled New York production was subsequently canceled, with Viner charging that it had been "censored for political reasons." The controversy drew even further attention to the play, and dozens of productions followed worldwide. The Courtenay performance is part of a Vancouver Island tour by Nanaimo's Western Edge Theatre, which first produced "My Name is Rachel Corrie" to multiple standing ovations last Fall, and again at the recent Gabriola Theatre Festival.

The Western Edge production features Portia Boehm, and is directed by the company’s artistic producer, Frank Moher. "My Name is Rachel Corrie doesn’t pretend to present both sides of the issue," says Moher. "It doesn’t have to. Theatre’s job is to make you feel and to make you think. And that it does superbly."

"My Name is Rachel Corrie" plays Friday, Sept. 25th at 7:30 pm at the Lake Trail Secondary School (805 Willemar, Courtenay). Admission is by donation at the door.

The Courtenay performance is sponsored by the Comox Valley Peace Group and The World Community Development Education Society.