A SAD DAY FOR THE THEATRE

Well, that's what Alan Rickman and his cohorts think, anyway:

A New York theatre company has put off plans to stage a play about an American activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza because of the current "political climate" - a decision the play's British director, Alan Rickman, denounced yesterday as "censorship".

James Nicola, the artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop, said it had never formally announced it would be staging the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, but it had been considering staging it in March.

"In our pre-production planning and our talking around and listening in our communities in New York, what we heard was that after Ariel Sharon's illness and the election of Hamas, we had a very edgy situation," Mr Nicola said. "We found that our plan to present a work of art would be seen as us taking a stand in a political conflict, that we didn't want to take."

To which Rickman responded:

"I can only guess at the pressures of funding an independent theatre company in New York, but calling this production "postponed" does not disguise the fact that it has been cancelled," Mr Rickman said in a statement. "This is censorship born out of fear, and the New York Theatre Workshop, the Royal Court, New York audiences - all of us are the losers."

If the company really did make its decision because of the politics, that's bad news. The one really valid reason not to go ahead is that My Name Is Rachel Corrie is a painfully mediocre piece of agit-prop. Which it is, believe me. (Although you'd never have guessed from reading most of the coverage.)

Comments

[Joel]

A play about St. Pancake at the time when Hamas is planning its jihad is not a good idea. The British seem to be terminally stuck on stupid.

[Fausta]

If only Rickman would spend some time doing a play about the other Rachels mentioned in The Forgotten Rachels site . . .

[Mike]

Who let joel out of the LGF bin?

[Tara]

Who let Mike out of the you don't have a clue bin ?

[Wolfie]

Don't you think saying that "Hamas is planning its jihad" is exaggerating a little, Joel? Palestine is always in crisis so I doubt there would ever be a "good time" for anything on the subject. Looks to me that its been cancelled for the simple reason that its rubbish and back here in England we know only too well that while Rickman is a reasonably good actor he is alas terminally dim-witted. He is only a thesp. after all.