Email this Article Printer-friendly RELATED ARTICLES: 17 Dec 2006 -- Corrie Days, Well They’ll Pass You By: Controversial Play Closes Dec. 17 05 Dec 2006 -- Rachel Corrie to Close Dec. 17 21 Nov 2006 -- Rickman and Others to Appear on Rachel Corrie Panel Nov. 21 19 Oct 2006 -- My Name Is Rachel Corrie Extends Through Dec. 30 17 Oct 2006 -- My Name Is Rachel Corrie Starts Talkbacks on Oct. 17

By Zachary Pincus-Roth
26 Dec 2006

Toronto's CanStage has canceled its production of My Name is Rachel Corrie, the controversial play about the real-life 23-year-old American who was killed by an Israeli Army bulldozer while protesting the razing of a Palestinian house.

According to published reports, Martin Bragg, the company's artistic producer, says that he canceled the play for reasons of merit, not for its political content. Bragg originally read the play and scheduled it for CanStage's 2007-08 season. But he changed his mind after seeing the New York premiere, which began previews Oct. 5 and closed Dec. 17 at the Minetta Lane Theater.

"It didn't seem as powerful on the stage as it did on the page," he told Variety. "The theatre was half full and at the end of the play, there was only lukewarm applause," he told the CBC website.

Variety quotes a CanStage board member and a CanStage donor expressing skepticism about whether Jews would be receptive to the play, but Bragg assured the paper, "I pick the plays. No one on our board has ever told me what we can and can't do."

Rachel Corrie is edited by Alan Rickman and the journalist Katharine Viner from Corrie's writings. Rickman directed the play in New York and, before that, in London at the Royal Court Theatre and the West End.

The play became the subject of a heated debate this past spring when it was scheduled and then postponed at Off-Broadway's New York Theatre Workshop. The Royal Court and the play's creators accused the New York company of censorship while the New York troupe stated it merely sought to present the play in a climate suitable for the volatile work. The play's eventual New York premiere went up at the Minetta Lane, produced by Dena Hammerstein and Pam Pariseau, without NYTW's involvement.

Subsequent productions are being planned at other venues, such as Seattle Repertory Theatre, which has scheduled the play for March 15–April 22, 2007.

Keyword: Features/Location: All News Features Celebrity Buzz Writer: All Ackerman, Ari Allen, Morgan Blank, Matthew Bradley, Anne Buckley, Michael Ehren, Christine Gans, Andrew Gewirtzman, David Grode, Eric Haun, Harry Hernandez, Ernio Hetrick, Adam Hylton, Kevin Inverne, James Jones, Kenneth Kalafatas, Greg Khodosh, Ilya Ku, Andrew Lefkowitz, David Maher, Sam Marcus, Jason Mardenfeld, Sandra Mattison, Ben Mazzola, Karen Merlo, Melissa Nathan, John Nondorf, Tom Pincus-Roth, Zachary Rothstein, Mervyn Rudetsky, Seth Scheduler, Mailing List Shenton, Mark Simonson, Robert Staff, Playbill Stekeur, Craig Suskin, Steven Tallmer, Jerry Trinh, Paul Viagas, Robert Windman, Matt Wong, Wayman

Contact Us | Advertise | Privacy Policy

Send questions and comments to the Webmaster
Copyright © 2008 Playbill, Inc. All Rights Reserved.