It Was Paradise, Unfortunately
Goethe-Institut Irland, Dublin
★★★★☆
In Sophocles’s ancient play Antigone, the concerned inhabitants of a plagued city, seeing their king finally right his wrongs, decide to perform a song of gratitude to the god Dionysus. It’s an odd choice: given all we know about Greek antiquity, isn’t Zeus the most influential of the gods?
Raphaël Amahl Khouri flags this curious detail in this stunningly clever documentary play, a self-portrait of him as a transgender artist from Jordan that broadens into a statement on theatre itself. After falling in and out of love with the medium, Khouri, who is from a family of fruit growers, quits playwrighting to become an ethnobotanist. A fascination with Greek plants – the vine seen in depictions of Dionysus, in particular – pulls him back into the fold. (“You know when you’re happy, and your ex texts you?” he says.)
In performance, Khouri’s delivery is restrained like a conference speaker’s, making traumatic revelations come across as funnily offbeat (“I was bullied for being transgender. Surprise!”), but its drip-feed of information is absorbing. He ushers in sightings of Dionysus from classical decoration, seen in feminine poses and dress before becoming suppressed – the Byzantine Empire’s takeover of Athens is presented as an attack against a culture recognisable today as transgender.
Given current discourse on inclusion in theatre, Khouri seizes the opportunity to lean into legitimate ire: “You took it from us, and stripped it of its joy.” The play, ultimately, is reaffirming, uncovering Dionysus’s vine. Those fruits can be grown again.
It Was Paradise, Unfortunately: A stunningly clever investigation of theatre as a trans art form
I used to swallow my tongue at meetings. Now I’ll stand up in front of any crowd. Want to know what made the difference?
Malignant Humour review: This one-woman wonder is far funnier than a cancer-inspired circus act has any right to be
Afterwards review: Impeccable performances and crackling dialogue in a play with an unmistakable purpose
Continues at Goethe-Institut Irland, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Saturday, September 14th
