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Gilgamesh
Epic of Gilgamesh, The

Sound recording, story; Gilgamesh, a version of the Sumerian epic cycle, myth and legend, told by Ben Haggarty, with musical accompaniment by Manya Maratou, in a mini-festival of stories, Herioc Journeys, The Epic of Gilgamesh, programmed by the Crick Crack Club and Barbican Education, in the Pit Theatre, Barbican Centre, London, 17th February 2006.

Introduction by Jillian Barker, Head of Education at the Barbican Centre, followed by story performed in two halves by Ben Haggarty, accompanied by musician Manya Maratou. The story tells of the birth of Gilgamesh and of his friend Enkidu, and their adventures together, often in conflict with gods and goddeses. Gilgamesh and Enkidu make a great journey to gather timber from a cedar forest, to fire kilns to make bricks, in order to build a great wall around the city of Uruk. Having completed this great task, Gilgamesh is approached by Ishtar, the goddess of love who seeks his hand in marriage. Rejected, she calls on the bull of heaven to punish Gilgamesh and in the fight which follows, Enkidu is fatally wounded. Having lost his friend and companion Gilgamesh sets out on a journey to seek out eternal life. He travels into the underworld to find Utnapishtim, the only human granted eternal life by the gods. When he finds Utnapishtim he is faced with the challenge to stay awake, as prepartion for eternal life, but he fails, and returns empty handed to live as a mortal man and King of Uruk.

A section of programme note reads - This 5,000 year old story raises questions that are still relevant today, exploring tyranny, the search for eternal life, the threat of apocalypse and the secrets of the gods.

Gilgamesh is one of the oldest recorded stories in the world. Gilgamesh, an ancient king of Uruk, in Babylonia, on the River Euphrates in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), lived at about 2700 B.C and his names survives on the Sumerian King List. Some of the stories of Gilgamesh were written down on clay tablets in 2000- 1500 B.C, in the Sumerian language. These Sumerian Gilgamesh stories were intergrated into a longer poem recorded in Akkadian, in the seventh century B.C, and stored in the famous library of King Assurbanipal, King of Assyria 669 - 633 B.C, and also on tablets written in Hurrian and Hittite. All the above languages were written in the script known as 'cuneiform', meaning 'wedge-shaped'. The fullest surviving verison of the story of Gilgamesh comes from 12 stone tablets in the Akkadian language, found in the ruins of the library of King Assurbanipa, at Nineveh, which was destroyed by the Persians in 612 B.C.

audience:- adult
    recording quality
condition:- good
completeness:- complete
duration:- 1 hour, 47 minutes, 29 seconds

In 2003, Jillian Barker, Head of Education at the Barbican Centre, London, approached Ben Haggarty, Artistic Director of the Crick Crack Club, with a proposal to programme regular performance storytelling at the Barbican Centre. Since 2003 the Crick Crack Club has worked in partnership with Barbican Education to programme 9 events a year in the Barbican Pit Theatre, for adult audiences. These events are programmed during the three school half terms each year, with usually three evening events per half term. The performances of storytelling are occasionally preceded by pre-show talks. The Pit Theatre is an award winning black box theatre, which seats approximately 180 people (depending on the seating configuration).

storytelling:- storyteller: Ben Haggarty
male / British / born 30.11.1958

storytelling:- musician: Manya Maratou
female / Greek

storytelling:- Master of Ceremonies: Jillian Barker
female / British / occupation Educationalist; Head of Barbican Education

origin:- Iraq
Mesapotamian
Sumerian


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event flyer

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programming & administration:- programmer; Crick Crack Club Artistic Director: Ben Haggarty
programmer: The Crick Crack Club
administrator; programmer: The Barbican Centre; Barbican Education


storytelling:- London, England: The Barbican Centre: The Pit Theatre
17 Feb 2006
mini-festival; public performance: Herioc Journeys
The Epic of Gilgamesh


gift from:- The Barbican Centre


©  The London Centre for International Storytelling: 2007
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