“The flesh is mine” is a very powerful piece, a piece that can be seen from multiple perspectives about multiple things. The play has its roots in “the Ilyad” and is very similar having the same structure and even character names, but is essentially exploring the contemporary experiences of people living under states of siege in the Middle East and those in the UK who are affected by events in the Middle East.

The play is a modernized but keeps the same meaning and view, to keep it unique from “iliyad” he based it off of the corruption in Israel and Palestine. The structure of the story was written 2700+ years ago by a Greek poet named Homer, it was a story which those who travelled sang.

The story evolves around one of the most known warriors in Greek history (if he is not a myth), Achilles, the powerful, the brave, the unstoppable. According to some his mother dipped him into a magical pot/cauldron making his skin impenetrable giving him a huge advantage with his battles. Most people know of something known as “Achilles heel” when Achilles mother dipped him she left his ankles untouched resulting in his weakness and easily damaged part. This is seen where Achilles and Hecuba have a short scuffle and Achilles injures his ankle.

The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict starts after World War One in which Palestine had been administered by the United Kingdom under a Mandate received in 1922 from the league of nations. Israel has been stealing Palestinian land for a long time resulting in many confrontations and retaliations. The Trojans are the Israelis and the Greeks are the Palestinians.

Daniel Zibaee