Climate of fear

Lest you thought the bloviating of the right, in which plays and movies are reviewed and angrily criticized before they're even seen, didn't have an effect...

The play was written by the actor Alan Rickman, who directed the piece, and Katherine Viner, a journalist at The Guardian newspaper in London, who pieced together snippets of Ms. Corrie's journals and e-mail messages to create the script. And while the show had not been formally announced, Ms. Viner said yesterday that she and Mr. Rickman had already bought plane tickets to see the production at the workshop.

"I was devastated and really surprised," Ms. Viner said in a telephone interview from London. "And in my view, I think they're misjudging the New York audience. It's a piece of art, not a piece of agitprop."

But Mr. Nicola said he was less worried about those who saw the show than those who simply heard about it.

"I don't think we were worried about the audience," he said. "I think we were more worried that those who had never encountered her writing, never encountered the piece, would be using this as an opportunity to position their arguments."

Haven't seen the play. Don't know if it's any good. And don't have much of a point of view on Rachel Corrie other than I'm sorry she was killed and I won't link to Little Green Assholes. But when artists begin to worry about the views of people who haven't seen, and have no intention of seeing, their art, then I think we have yet another reason to exult in the Great Times in which We Live.

Another day. Another victory for the Kulturekampf.