I went to see the one woman play, "I Am Rachel Corrie". Now, as many of you know, Rachel Corrie was from Olympia, WA and died in Rafah in the Middle East. I am, of course, from Everett, Washington and I know well when this event occurred as I was still living in the area when she died.

What I took away from the play was less about her death than about the kind of person she was portrayed as (I never met her nor do I know what kind of person she was). As I told a friend before the show, I was worried about who edited her journals to create the play in the first place. Editors have a huge amount of power when creating these adapations. I saw her in that play very much like many, many other "free spirited" (although, it seems to me that they all have the same spirit) girls whom I have met in the greater Seattle area. I can introduce you to many girls who are just like the one portrayed in the play. The rhetoric she uses, especially near the end, is very familiar to me. I felt almost like I was back home.

What this did was highlight how jaded I had become to it. It was a familiar fly buzzing in my ear. After the play, I told my friend this and she said that to many people they never hear this kind of stuff. To me, it was part and parcel of daily life. Maybe it was because of the company I kept or the universities where I studied but it was a constant background noise.

I guess what made me jaded was that the rhetoric was so repetitive (as any rhetoric often is). In addition, I have absolutely no understanding of the problem itself. Yes, the death and violence is wrong but I have nothing to contribute to ending it. I do not understand the underlying issues and they are so complicated that I fear to try to understand them.

Technically the show is very good. The props are nice and well used during the show. The actress who plays Rachel does a good job of playing a "hippie chick" (whether Rachel was really like that, I have no clue; like I said, I never met her). She only gets one chance to drink water during the entire play so I commend her on her vocal fortitude.

Tonight, I get to see a man turn obscenity into an art form. Yay!

posted by Chris  #4:22 PM | 0 comments |