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Paradise
Philoctetes lives in a cave on a desolate island: the wartime hero is now a wounded outcast. Stranded for ten years, he sees a chance of escape when a young soldier appears with tales of Philoctetes’ past glories. But with hope comes suspicion — and, as an old enemy emerges, he is faced with an even greater temptation: revenge.
Kae Tempest is now widely acknowledged as a revolutionary force in contemporary British poetry, music and drama; they continue to expand the range of their work with a new version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes in a bold new translation. Like ‘Brand New Ancients’ before it, ‘Paradise’ shoes Tempest’s gift for lending the old tales an immediate, contemporary relevance — we will find this timeless story a wide new audience.
Kae Tempest is now widely acknowledged as a revolutionary force in contemporary British poetry, music and drama; they continue to expand the range of their work with a new version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes in a bold new translation. Like ‘Brand New Ancients’ before it, ‘Paradise’ shoes Tempest’s gift for lending the old tales an immediate, contemporary relevance — we will find this timeless story a wide new audience.
137 pages, Paperback
First published August 5, 2021
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May 13, 2022This one's interesting. It's a very explicitly political reimagining of the Sophocles play 'Philoctetes'. It is broadly faithful but with a wildly divergent ending. The version of this staged at the NT is gender-swapped, with an all-female cast. The text itself however, on paper, retains the original genders. So its a case of Lesley Sharp being cast as a male character, not a reimagined female Philoctetes if that distinction makes sense.
I think its biggest challenge is that the last quote/unquote major translation of this play was also explicitly political - by Seamus Heaney. I think this one feels... a tad short on poetry maybe, not literally as there are rhymes here, but conceptually -- its politics a touch obvious and heavy. Prob something longer to be written - by someone Irish who knows what theyre talking about -- about why The Troubles inspired probably the most ambivalent, tricky art of any major western conflict i can think of. I think my problem with Kae Tempest's read on the material is that Sophocles' original politics - to the extent anyones politics can make sense at such a vast historical remove - feel tricky and ambivalent and the ethical dilemmas it appears to pose are irresolvable. Whereas this one feels a bit too easy - war is bad.
The Sophocles version ends with i suppose a literal deus ex machina, a god shows up and tells all the fellas to behave. This version subs that out for Philoctetes getting hit over the head with a rock and bundled away, and Odysseus takes Philoctetes place on the island. I think this is a meaningful change, first in that the original play is categorically interesting as something that feels like a tragedy that ends happily, like the original Ordet. This change obviously removes the text from that category, recasting it as a play that reads like a tragedy because it is one. It's also interesting to produce a play that includes Odysseus that forestalls the events of The Odyssey from happening.
One moment here I thought was interesting was the suggestion that Thersites, in this version of the play, retired from war and became an oil baron or something. I think this is interesting in the context of the project of writing a humanitarian, socialist Sophocles. Because oil profiteers exist, contribute to war and are bad and it is correct and laudable to flag this thru the vehicle of contemporary drama. But Thersites in the Iliad is - far as I recall anyway - someone who articulates much of the same critique Tempest injects into Sopochles, the vulgarity of waging war for the profit motive, someone willing to speak up for the lower orders - the same people Tempest centres, via the chorus here. He is a poor fit for an oil baron, but significantly so. Sophocles, like Homer - writes about politics. These plays and poems and the classical linage they relate to are already political. I think they're interesting because of their ambivalence. Tempest's play is brutal at times, sentimental at others - some characters pee on and shoot each other because they are mean, others are called things like aunty and jelly because they're nice - so the ambivalence is lost and I think the loss is significant.
Homer's deployment of Thersites is very interesting - ambivalent, ambiguous and irresolvable - and has attracted comment from thinkers Tempest probably sees as being in their corner - muller, marx, hegel among them. Thersites in Homer is presented superficially as a grotesque - which Tempest maps onto golf-playing oil tycoons, because they are also grotesque, ethically rather than physically. But the thing about Thersites is that his presentation as a grotesque allows him to function as, essentially, an authorial trojan horse. Because the criticisms he makes of the Grecian authorities - for which Odysseus beats him - are fundamentally correct. In casting him as a ridiculous figure, Homer doesn't (so argued by Hegel) discredit Thersites - but allows his critique of authority to be heard. It's a classic shakespearean fool thing (and Shakespeare does literally use Thersites as a fool in a play) - drama has been policed, at times relentlessly, for eons. Putting astute political critique in the mouths of idiots means that texts that would have otherwise been suppressed remain sneak through. It is of genuine textual significance i think that Thersites is made to be an oil baron here. It is a howler.
Tempest also deletes the exchange in which a description of Thersites is confused for his opposite, Odysseus. That again seems like a strange miss for me - something you'd expect the classicists thanked in the acknowledgements to catch - as it removes a key function of Thersites being mentioned at all - the parallel Sophocles draws between Philoctetes and Thersites as people who consider themselves *wronged* by Odysseus. Philoctetes hating someone who hates the same people he hates is interesting and very political content. It's a small moment but it stands out as odd, an attempt to recast the play in a leftist context that deletes some of its most direct utility, in the sense that Thersites *as originally presented* is as a character is known for challenging Odysseus and for being brutalised for it, his critique proven in its own suppression.. anyway.
But there's things that work here and some of the big speeches are good. So I was mixed on this. I do genuinely think a more accurate translation of the original - literally just the penguin classics edition, is more successfully political. But it does correctly point to how fascinating Sophocles is and points to the difficulties of trying to *resolve* these plays, over a thousand years on. I think that trying to runs you into difficulty.
I think its biggest challenge is that the last quote/unquote major translation of this play was also explicitly political - by Seamus Heaney. I think this one feels... a tad short on poetry maybe, not literally as there are rhymes here, but conceptually -- its politics a touch obvious and heavy. Prob something longer to be written - by someone Irish who knows what theyre talking about -- about why The Troubles inspired probably the most ambivalent, tricky art of any major western conflict i can think of. I think my problem with Kae Tempest's read on the material is that Sophocles' original politics - to the extent anyones politics can make sense at such a vast historical remove - feel tricky and ambivalent and the ethical dilemmas it appears to pose are irresolvable. Whereas this one feels a bit too easy - war is bad.
The Sophocles version ends with i suppose a literal deus ex machina, a god shows up and tells all the fellas to behave. This version subs that out for Philoctetes getting hit over the head with a rock and bundled away, and Odysseus takes Philoctetes place on the island. I think this is a meaningful change, first in that the original play is categorically interesting as something that feels like a tragedy that ends happily, like the original Ordet. This change obviously removes the text from that category, recasting it as a play that reads like a tragedy because it is one. It's also interesting to produce a play that includes Odysseus that forestalls the events of The Odyssey from happening.
One moment here I thought was interesting was the suggestion that Thersites, in this version of the play, retired from war and became an oil baron or something. I think this is interesting in the context of the project of writing a humanitarian, socialist Sophocles. Because oil profiteers exist, contribute to war and are bad and it is correct and laudable to flag this thru the vehicle of contemporary drama. But Thersites in the Iliad is - far as I recall anyway - someone who articulates much of the same critique Tempest injects into Sopochles, the vulgarity of waging war for the profit motive, someone willing to speak up for the lower orders - the same people Tempest centres, via the chorus here. He is a poor fit for an oil baron, but significantly so. Sophocles, like Homer - writes about politics. These plays and poems and the classical linage they relate to are already political. I think they're interesting because of their ambivalence. Tempest's play is brutal at times, sentimental at others - some characters pee on and shoot each other because they are mean, others are called things like aunty and jelly because they're nice - so the ambivalence is lost and I think the loss is significant.
Homer's deployment of Thersites is very interesting - ambivalent, ambiguous and irresolvable - and has attracted comment from thinkers Tempest probably sees as being in their corner - muller, marx, hegel among them. Thersites in Homer is presented superficially as a grotesque - which Tempest maps onto golf-playing oil tycoons, because they are also grotesque, ethically rather than physically. But the thing about Thersites is that his presentation as a grotesque allows him to function as, essentially, an authorial trojan horse. Because the criticisms he makes of the Grecian authorities - for which Odysseus beats him - are fundamentally correct. In casting him as a ridiculous figure, Homer doesn't (so argued by Hegel) discredit Thersites - but allows his critique of authority to be heard. It's a classic shakespearean fool thing (and Shakespeare does literally use Thersites as a fool in a play) - drama has been policed, at times relentlessly, for eons. Putting astute political critique in the mouths of idiots means that texts that would have otherwise been suppressed remain sneak through. It is of genuine textual significance i think that Thersites is made to be an oil baron here. It is a howler.
Tempest also deletes the exchange in which a description of Thersites is confused for his opposite, Odysseus. That again seems like a strange miss for me - something you'd expect the classicists thanked in the acknowledgements to catch - as it removes a key function of Thersites being mentioned at all - the parallel Sophocles draws between Philoctetes and Thersites as people who consider themselves *wronged* by Odysseus. Philoctetes hating someone who hates the same people he hates is interesting and very political content. It's a small moment but it stands out as odd, an attempt to recast the play in a leftist context that deletes some of its most direct utility, in the sense that Thersites *as originally presented* is as a character is known for challenging Odysseus and for being brutalised for it, his critique proven in its own suppression.. anyway.
But there's things that work here and some of the big speeches are good. So I was mixed on this. I do genuinely think a more accurate translation of the original - literally just the penguin classics edition, is more successfully political. But it does correctly point to how fascinating Sophocles is and points to the difficulties of trying to *resolve* these plays, over a thousand years on. I think that trying to runs you into difficulty.
June 17, 2024
Tempest adapts Sophocles to attack war, profiteering, and masculinity. It’s a bit too preachy and ramshackle.
September 9, 2021
After reading their poetry collections and books: this was my first Kae Tempest play and I was lucky enough to get tickets to see it performed live at the National Theatre.
When I found out it was another adaptation from Greek Mythology I was excited because I adored their short adaptation of Tiresias in Hold Your Own and have often revisited passages from it. I didn’t know anything about the story of Philoctetes so was looking forward to learning about them.
The writing was of course brilliant, some of Philoctetes speeches were so powerful as usual Kae cuts to the heart of our societies flaws in such an astute way that it is darkly comical. Although, some of the tonal shifts didn’t feel quite right; with comical beats coming during moments of something serious or important so the tension was diffused. This made the audience uneasy and off balance, unsure of how we should be responding to the event.
Performance review:
However, I don’t know if this was the writing or the performance as writing aside the acting and directional choices were absolutely terrible. On paper it should of been a hit: it was a fully female or AFAB cast with Kae’s writing but the fact it was directed by a man gave me pause and unfortunately I was right.
Philoctetes felt so over the top and untruthful I think this could of been a directional choice to play toxic masculinity and false heroism as satirical but it did not pay off. It read as a bad performance of mental illness acting. In particular the seizure moment was so extreme it was cringey and almost comical. This was a real shame as the Chorus were all extremely strong and working in tune with each-other. For the most I had to really concentrate on the words to appreciate Kae’s work without being distracted by the pantomime. But even then the text still shone.
When I found out it was another adaptation from Greek Mythology I was excited because I adored their short adaptation of Tiresias in Hold Your Own and have often revisited passages from it. I didn’t know anything about the story of Philoctetes so was looking forward to learning about them.
The writing was of course brilliant, some of Philoctetes speeches were so powerful as usual Kae cuts to the heart of our societies flaws in such an astute way that it is darkly comical. Although, some of the tonal shifts didn’t feel quite right; with comical beats coming during moments of something serious or important so the tension was diffused. This made the audience uneasy and off balance, unsure of how we should be responding to the event.
Performance review:
However, I don’t know if this was the writing or the performance as writing aside the acting and directional choices were absolutely terrible. On paper it should of been a hit: it was a fully female or AFAB cast with Kae’s writing but the fact it was directed by a man gave me pause and unfortunately I was right.
Philoctetes felt so over the top and untruthful I think this could of been a directional choice to play toxic masculinity and false heroism as satirical but it did not pay off. It read as a bad performance of mental illness acting. In particular the seizure moment was so extreme it was cringey and almost comical. This was a real shame as the Chorus were all extremely strong and working in tune with each-other. For the most I had to really concentrate on the words to appreciate Kae’s work without being distracted by the pantomime. But even then the text still shone.
January 29, 2024
Wanted to read the play after watching Lesley Sharp’s Philoctetes monologue on the National Theatre insta page.
It was scary to see how fitting Odysseus story goes in our modern, dystopic, military industrial setting. This gives an even darker shade to the whole myth.
I will now proceed to watch the play in more less legal ways on the internet 😤
It was scary to see how fitting Odysseus story goes in our modern, dystopic, military industrial setting. This gives an even darker shade to the whole myth.
I will now proceed to watch the play in more less legal ways on the internet 😤
February 13, 2024
j’étais pas à fond dedans je suis passée à côté de pleins de trucs je pense
la guerre et les soldats c’est pas mon sujet préféré
la guerre et les soldats c’est pas mon sujet préféré
February 14, 2022
I also watched this on the National Theatre at Home app. It was, writing wise, brilliant. In performance both Philoctetes & Odysseus were so over the top. Either poor directorial choices (or choice of director - an all female cast with a male director is a puzzling choice when the stories of the female chorus are so pivotal), or poor acting choices. I’m not sure. I know that, as someone who has suffered years of chronic pain, I found Lesley Sharps portrayal of Philoctetes’ pain ridiculous & a little insulting.
However, this is a review of the text and I adore Kae Tempest. The work is full of Tempest’s signatures - brutally honest, sharp observations, the ability to find beautiful things in the darkest of things, and love. I always come away from Tempest thinking “How does someone write something like that?!” All I can think is that they are from a different time. Kae Tempest writes like a modern day Shakespeare.
However, this is a review of the text and I adore Kae Tempest. The work is full of Tempest’s signatures - brutally honest, sharp observations, the ability to find beautiful things in the darkest of things, and love. I always come away from Tempest thinking “How does someone write something like that?!” All I can think is that they are from a different time. Kae Tempest writes like a modern day Shakespeare.
December 19, 2021
So this is Kae Tempests take on Sophocles’ ‘Philoctetes’ - an ancient Greek play that tells the story of how Neoptolemus and Odysseus try to trick Philoctetes into returning from the island they left him on, wounded, desperately alone, about ten years ago. Odysseus needs him and his invincible bow in his war against Troy.
Just as Sophocles Tempest also deploys a chorus. But while in Greek plays the chorus is a collective homogenous group with no distinctive individual features here it’s a familiar group of women, struggling but full of dignity, who have lived on the war-stricken island for a long time. They carry names, have quirks, they live in community (they are also very witty at times!).
I guess (and I know next to nothing about Greek mythology) originally this is a story that aims to debate questions of the subjectivity of morals: Neoptolemus, Odysseus and Philoctetes, public, political figures of their times, generals, warlords even, are driven by complicated backstories that, sometimes more, sometimes less, make sense of their individual actions. And Tempest absolutely stays in touch with their humanity, we feel for them, their battles aren’t portrayed as illegitimate.
Yet, and sure, there’s different ways to look at this play, by contrasting them with the struggles of the women in the chorus the play imposes a whole other set of urgent questions, mainly: Whose story is this after all?
The text refuses to treat the chorus as a monolithic manifestation of negligible ‘ordinary people’, refuses to treat them as an abstract entity, a canvas on which global policy and the big picture just pass by. There are actual genuine people to whom this world is a home, there’s trauma and pain, deliberately inflicted on them through war, a pain that is excruciatingly real. But they have agency (loved this: “We don’t need more violence here.” “It could make us powerful.” "We’re already powerful.”) and even in a place as dismal as this they create belonging and beauty through a shared experience of being human, Paradise.
Kae Tempest frequently draws on Greek mythology in their work in the most stunning, particular way. By stylistically bringing those stories into the now, our cold individualistic foul capitalist hellscape, enhancing their universality and timelessness, they draw attention to the notion that humanness is a joint experience, that there’s kinship and that people are all we’ve got (Yes, quoting Fleabag here, why not), them, there are you, here. Tempests work is a call to powerful arms in dire times, the arms being radical compassion, empathy and warmth.
Just as Sophocles Tempest also deploys a chorus. But while in Greek plays the chorus is a collective homogenous group with no distinctive individual features here it’s a familiar group of women, struggling but full of dignity, who have lived on the war-stricken island for a long time. They carry names, have quirks, they live in community (they are also very witty at times!).
I guess (and I know next to nothing about Greek mythology) originally this is a story that aims to debate questions of the subjectivity of morals: Neoptolemus, Odysseus and Philoctetes, public, political figures of their times, generals, warlords even, are driven by complicated backstories that, sometimes more, sometimes less, make sense of their individual actions. And Tempest absolutely stays in touch with their humanity, we feel for them, their battles aren’t portrayed as illegitimate.
Yet, and sure, there’s different ways to look at this play, by contrasting them with the struggles of the women in the chorus the play imposes a whole other set of urgent questions, mainly: Whose story is this after all?
The text refuses to treat the chorus as a monolithic manifestation of negligible ‘ordinary people’, refuses to treat them as an abstract entity, a canvas on which global policy and the big picture just pass by. There are actual genuine people to whom this world is a home, there’s trauma and pain, deliberately inflicted on them through war, a pain that is excruciatingly real. But they have agency (loved this: “We don’t need more violence here.” “It could make us powerful.” "We’re already powerful.”) and even in a place as dismal as this they create belonging and beauty through a shared experience of being human, Paradise.
Kae Tempest frequently draws on Greek mythology in their work in the most stunning, particular way. By stylistically bringing those stories into the now, our cold individualistic foul capitalist hellscape, enhancing their universality and timelessness, they draw attention to the notion that humanness is a joint experience, that there’s kinship and that people are all we’ve got (Yes, quoting Fleabag here, why not), them, there are you, here. Tempests work is a call to powerful arms in dire times, the arms being radical compassion, empathy and warmth.
November 24, 2025
Paradijs. Door: Kae Tempest.
Kae Tempest did dit again: mij van mijn sokken blazen.
Met muziek, in boeken, op een podium: altijd en overal is Kae er ‘boenk’ op. Woorden zijn de overkoepelende factor. Tempest raakt je mokerhard maar altijd met liefde, en ‘grace’.
Paradijs is de vertaling (door: Nathalie Tabury en Gaea Schoeter) van Paradise, Tempest zijn herwerking van Philoctetes voor het National Theatre.
Paradise lag al een tijdje op mijn Te Lezen Stapel maar deze Nederlandse vertaling kreeg dan toch voorrang van mij. En oh wat was ik onder de indruk. De Griekse mythologie zo urgent en actueel maken, op een manier die een schop onder de kont is voor de huidige oorlogsbewuste maatschappij is, raakte me hard.
Soms grappig, soms grof, vaak hard, maar ook teder. Waar Kae gaat daar volg ik. Punt. Lees en leer.
Kae Tempest did dit again: mij van mijn sokken blazen.
Met muziek, in boeken, op een podium: altijd en overal is Kae er ‘boenk’ op. Woorden zijn de overkoepelende factor. Tempest raakt je mokerhard maar altijd met liefde, en ‘grace’.
Paradijs is de vertaling (door: Nathalie Tabury en Gaea Schoeter) van Paradise, Tempest zijn herwerking van Philoctetes voor het National Theatre.
Paradise lag al een tijdje op mijn Te Lezen Stapel maar deze Nederlandse vertaling kreeg dan toch voorrang van mij. En oh wat was ik onder de indruk. De Griekse mythologie zo urgent en actueel maken, op een manier die een schop onder de kont is voor de huidige oorlogsbewuste maatschappij is, raakte me hard.
Soms grappig, soms grof, vaak hard, maar ook teder. Waar Kae gaat daar volg ik. Punt. Lees en leer.
April 28, 2024
M'ha agradat, pro penso que m'hagués agradat més l'original de Sòfocles. Dubto que la contemporeneització aporti algu a cosa de massa valor a l'obra, justament penso que les obres clàssiques tenen de xulu que el lector sigui qui en faci aquesta lectura i se la porti al seu temps, perq l'universialitat hi és. O almenys a mi certes modernors en el text, o que em citin en Rambo, m'ha tirat super patras. He trobat super interrssant el triangle dels tres protas i m'ha encantat la figura del Cor, un manat de dones curioses i panxacontentes que recorden a les àvies d'studio Ghibli. Hi ha moments i frases molt boniques, i tot el concepte de soledat, abandó, confiança, amistat, moral... <3
(llegit en una traducció al català)
(llegit en una traducció al català)
April 17, 2022
Huge fan of Kae’s work. This has elements of their brilliant storytelling. The writing is full of urgency. Some of the dialogue feels a bit forced, but overall the moments of passion, tension, pain and joy jump off of the page.
August 27, 2021
AMAZING!!!! Now I just need to see the play ;)
August 28, 2021
A play script which, unsurprisingly, reads like a poem. Need to see the play!
Read
January 21, 2022Tragèdia grega + Kae Tempest: sí a tot
July 6, 2023
(3.5) Interesting
December 3, 2023
Interesting modern adaptation of Greek myth.
January 22, 2024
yum yum yum i can’t wait to watch this now
veeeery witches of macbeth vibes n a little confusing on what time this was set but really loved the flow and the chorus’ speech
i’ve missed reading plays
veeeery witches of macbeth vibes n a little confusing on what time this was set but really loved the flow and the chorus’ speech
i’ve missed reading plays
July 19, 2024
Pas très convaincue par la scène d’ouverture avec le choeur, mais des que Philoctète et Néoptolème se rencontrent c’est génial !!! J’adore l’écriture de la pièce !!!
March 19, 2025
I would like to see this play out a stage, it would be interesting. I prefer her other works but still enjoyed this one.
December 16, 2021
I really wanted to see this live but didn't feel ready enough to go to the theatre after lockdown so I was so happy they released the play text.
I loved what Tempest did with the play - the twist at the end feeding into the theme that war and vengeance only breed vengeance. The idea that the island was a receptacle for our trash was so present and made for an interesting take on the chorus and how we treat those less fortunate than us.
The chorus themselves were particularly fleshed out, as they were more fleshed out into individual characters with unique personalities so the mechanism of the chorus became one to reflect how the main players view their supporting cast.
These themes are perennial in Tempest's works and their choice of Greek myth and drama works so well to portray them, making them feel timeless.
I loved what Tempest did with the play - the twist at the end feeding into the theme that war and vengeance only breed vengeance. The idea that the island was a receptacle for our trash was so present and made for an interesting take on the chorus and how we treat those less fortunate than us.
The chorus themselves were particularly fleshed out, as they were more fleshed out into individual characters with unique personalities so the mechanism of the chorus became one to reflect how the main players view their supporting cast.
These themes are perennial in Tempest's works and their choice of Greek myth and drama works so well to portray them, making them feel timeless.
January 5, 2025
a partial odyssey retelling - can’t say I loved it but it was fast paced and a quick read
February 6, 2022
Astounding.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews