Paradise

by Kae Tempest

seen at the National Theatre (Olivier) on 26 August 2021

Kae Tempest has transformed Philoctetes by Sophocles into a modern setting in which the titular hero is abandoned, wounded, but with an unerring bow which allows him to forage for food, on an island ironically called Paradise, shared with a chorus of women who live in some sort of refugee camp or staging post for possible release to another country, if only they had the correct papers for travel.

Odysseus, the wily captain, and Neoptolemus, the naive and impressionable son of Achilles, arrive on a mission to persude or compel Philoctetes to join them, since a prophecy has declared that the long war they are involved in cannot be won without him and his bow. Philoctetes is less than willing, his suppurating wound torturing him, and his sense of betrayal (it was Odysseus who abandoned him on the island) festering into suspicion and anger after years of brooding.

So much, so Sophocles, but in modern dress, with references to papers, immigration, refugee status, and the unchanging heartbreak of women who lose men in war, much is also different (the chorus in Philoctetes are sailors accompanying the warriors, not women trapped on the island). Also, although the talismanic bow and the disposition of Achilles' famed armour are still discussed, the soldiers speak in an entirely modern way clearly referencing styles in the British Army - Odysseus the clipped oficer type, Neoptolemus the raw but enthusiastic recruit, Philoctetes the broadest cockney imaginable. The women are very Caribbean in their sensibility, including an older wise woman who speaks, or rather almost sings, in an incantatory style. 

The original play pits youthful integrity against cynical worldliness, with the hapless Philoctetes hoping against hope that Neoptolemus is not trying to trick him and constantly appealing to the young man's sense of honor, Odysseus briskly trading on his naivety, and the young man torn between duty and honour, leading to an impasse so finely balanced that only the intervention of a god (the deified hero Heracles) can resolve the problem by instructing his erstwhile companion to swallow his pride and anger and go with the other two to Troy. In Paradise, by contrast, there is a neat twist forcing the play to suggest a cycle of wounded exiles rather than a resolution of the ethical dilemma - it's a clever idea.

Elsewhere the new playwright's interventions are less successful. The weird incantations are not always easy to follow, and at a critical moment Philoctetes delivers an excoriating speech about blighted patriotism, ugly colonialism and the generally despicble state of the nation to which Odysseus demands he be loyal, which for all its passionate anger seriously interrupts the flow of the drama. It was simply too much propaganda, the character suddenly a mouthpiece for the author.

Perhaps the most startling thing about the production (directed by Ian Rickson and designed by Rae Smith) is the fact that the whole cast (not just the chorus) was female. Anastasia Hille played Odysseus, Lesley Sharp Philoctetes, and Gloria Obianyo Philoctetes. Yet there was no sense that these were female soldiers; masculine pronoun still abound in the text and masculine body language and attitudes confront us everywhere on stage. It makes for an invigorating interpretation of a play that is almost two and half thousand years old, a difficult play in itself not always perfectly presented in its new guise, but nonetheless an intriguing and in many ways timely experience.