Rachel Corrie Manchester premiere
- Alan Hulme
- 3 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Writer Ian Kershaw (Coronation Street, Shameless, Cold Feet) makes his directorial debut, with Harriet Bibby (Coronation Street, Doctors, Brassic) in the title role, in Take Back theatre's Manchester premiere of My Name Is Rachel Corrie (53two, March 18-21).
Take Back is a political theatre collective, set up in 2015 by actor Julie Hesmondhalgh, writer Rebekah Harrison and visual artist Grant Archer.
My Name... is set in Gaza in 2003. Young American idealist Rachel - a lover of poetry, people and nature - travels to Rafa as part of an international peace brigade, lives with Palestinian families, works with the children and resists the destruction of Palestinian homes but meets a tragic end when she is killed by a military bulldozer.
The play tells the true story in Rachel’s own words, from excerpts from her diaries and from her many emails home, edited together by the late actor Alan Rickman and now-editor of The Guardian, Katherine Viner.
Ian Kershaw saw the original production and, like many who experienced it, was profoundly affected. Working recently with Harriet Bibby, Ian was struck with the thought that Harriet would be the ideal actor to play Rachel.
The multi-award winning play premiered at the Royal Court in London, in 2005, directed by Rickman, and has subsequently been performed all over the world. Twenty one years later, this production marks the play's Manchester premiere.
More info and tickets here