some more "Corrie" roundup

John Lahr comes out with what is probably the most highbrow praise yet for the play, calling it "riveting" and other good stuff while still recognizing its limitations.

Meanwhile, for a sample of the opposite reaction, see Philadelphia's Jewish Exponent. An op-ed there savages both Corrie the person and the play, the latter of which he erroneously states:

[F]or left-wing activists like acclaimed British actor Alan Rickman and former Guardian editor Katherine Viner, Corrie's life and death was perfect fodder for a work designed to further the cause for which she gave her life: the delegitimization of the State of Israel.

For the record, of the many controversial things about the play, "delegitimization of the State of Israel" is nowhere on the table in the text or the production, just as it has nothing to do with the issue of the occupied territories. But those who want to infer and fan flames will infer and fan away, I suppose. The Exponent's proper review of the play is equally unfriendly politically, and a thumbs-down, but treats it as more inncuous as anything else.

It is indeed pretty notable that such nasty low-circulation articles as this has, so far, been the extent of the Great Zionist Protest once expected by New York Theatre Workshop. Most conspicuously silent, of course, is ADL. They've clearly decided to sit this one out, concentrating instead on Borat and another free-speech imbroglio surrounding the professor Tony Judt.