The Gaza Strip. 23 year old Rachel Corrie stands between a Palestinian house and an armoured bulldozer on what would be the the last day of her young life.

Born in Olympia, Washington – “a place where hippie kids come after touring with jam bands” – she admits to being scared of people, yet driven by a compulsive need to help them. A teenage trip to Russia turns her from a local activist into one with a global awareness. That leads her to go to work in Gaza in 2003  with the International Solidarity Movement to support Palestinians whose homes were being systematically demolished.. Her journal also records the beleaguered existence of people in the city of Rafah: 602 homes have been bulldozed, many of those that survive have tank holes in the walls, checkpoints prevent people getting to work or registering at university. Her bright light was tragically extinguished in conflict there the very same year when she was crushed to death by a bulldozer while trying to prevent a Palestinian home from being demolished. A vivid portrait of her work and indelible spirit remains in the writings she left behind. This show directed and produced by Padraig Downey of Danú who recently staged Beckett’s Endgamelast month,  is a compilation of Rachel’s original writings, and it conjures her grit, empathy and acute sense of the sanctity of life – with searing beauty and unabashed honesty – as it delivers her intimate perspective on one of the world’s most violent and protracted conflicts. Rachel Corrie is played by Farrah Yasin, a Dubai based Palestinian actor who grew up in Canada and is all too aware of the power of Corrie’s words. This is the first time a one woman show is being locally produced in the GCC.  Edited by Katherine Viner and the late great Alan Rickman, the show unleashes the raw and dauntless passion for compassion that Rachel embodied in her work towards peace and human rights. At the forefront of this sensitive and thoughtful production are the questions that burned in Rachel’s heart: how do we find our path in life? What impact do our actions have on others? What do we owe to our fellow humans? What made a young woman leave her comfortable existence to fight for the rights of strangers in a war zone? Come find out Feb. 28, Mar 1 and Mar 2 at 8 pm at The Courtyard Playhouse, Al Quoz.

“Extraordinary power… funny, passionate, bristling with idealism and luminously intelligent.” Timeout London

“Powerful, thought-provoking, deeply moving.” The Daily Telegraph