My Name is Rachel Corrie – 53two

It is really quite rare that you get to see a truly great work of art. This was such a stunning, mesmerising, heart-and-gut-wrenching piece of work that it left the audience collectively speechless as they tried to process what they had just witnessed.

Unfortunately, there is no avoiding the subject matter of the play, which is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly the treatment by Israel of Gaza. The action of this drama takes place in 2003, twenty-plus years before the current carnage, and it centres around one remarkable young lady.

Rachel Corrie was a real person who decided in her early twenties to go to Rafah in Gaza in order to protest against the policies of the US government and its support for the actions of the Israeli army in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The play was created from Corrie’s journals and emails from Gaza. They were compiled by actor Alan Rickman and journalist Katharine Viner. It is a searing work full of optimism, hope and poetry, but also terrible despair and heartbreak. She sees how the people in that devastated region are forced to live, and she asks, “How did we allow the world to be like this?”

Where do I start with Harriet Bibby’s performance as Corrie? Here was acting of the highest order. To sustain a 90-minute monologue and give it such energy, light, shade, depth, emotion and sheer effervescence was amazing to behold. It was technically faultless, and her American accent was impeccable. More than that, though, every moment was engaging and compelling. You were completely drawn in and subsumed into this astonishing woman’s life. It was a perfectly judged performance.

Cleverly, the play would move from the domestic to the geopolitical, and you were able to see how the two were actually the same thing. She speaks movingly about how the lives of ordinary Gazans were affected by Israeli and US government actions. Corrie is distressed as she realised that for the children, curfews, bombed-out buildings, and water shortages were the norm. The local people just wanted to look after their families, and they also looked after her. None of this is their fault. “It is the leaders that make war.”

She is aware of her privilege, and she writes home to her parents telling them she wants to use her position to do something good in the world. Bibby brilliantly shows how Corrie’s bravery and fragility drove her forward and motivated her to act. Although she was scared, she used that fear to ignite the fire within her – that burning sense of injustice, her humanity, and the belief that all people should be able to lead their lives with dignity.

You would be forgiven for thinking that this was a dogmatic piece of theatre. It is not. There is an impassioned defence of the Palestinian people, but this play works precisely because it is about a person who recognises the ironies of her position and her deficiencies. She admits she is a bit lost and doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life.

As I mentioned earlier, at the end of the play, the audience was left to contemplate and process the ideas and emotions it had evoked. I have never seen an audience react in that way. There was well-deserved applause, eventually, and the couple in front of me had an emotional hug.

I can’t recommend this highly enough, and it continues at 53Two until 22 March – https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/null/my-name-is-rachel-corrie/e-kqyepd.

Reviewer: Adam Williams

Reviewed: 18th March 2026

North West End UK Rating: