| WOSAS : F593 |
WOSAS/CD212/track2 R635.wav |
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Gilgamesh
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| Sound recording, story; a short section of Gilgamesh, the Sumerian epic cycle and legend, told by Ben Haggarty, a member of the West London Storytelling Unit, at the fourth West London Storytelling Unit Clubnight, at Common Stock Theatre, Hammersmith, London, 16th October 1983 | |
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| Story told by Ben Haggarty. The story tells the nature of King Gilgamesh and the birth of Enkidu, a being created to counter the aggression of Gilgamesh and who becomes his friend and companion. | |
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| 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, which means 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. | |
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| This is one of the first tellings of Gilgamesh by Ben Haggarty. | |
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| audience:- | adult; contributing storytellers |
| recording quality | |
| condition:- | fair; good |
| completeness:- | complete |
| duration:- | 0 hours, 11 minutes, 19 seconds |
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| The West London Storytelling Unit Clubnights or The Storytelling Unit Clubnights were begun by Ben Haggarty, TUUP and Daisy Keable in 1982 shortly after beginning to work together as the West London Storytelling Unit (W.L.S.T.U). They took place on roughly a fortnightly basis during the atumn and winter months, in community centres in Acton, Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith. The clubnights were an opportunity for anyone to come and tell a story, or perform music on the condition that it had a toe-hold in tradition. The performance of original poetry and the reading of original writing was actively discouraged as there were plenty of other fora for 'new writing' elsewhere in London. In 2007 Ben Haggarty explained that the clubnight format was in part inspired by the College of Storytellers, but with the aim of doing something less bourgeois, for a younger audience and which was not dominated by Idries Shah's mission to promote his vision of Sufi storytelling. The clubnights also took inspiration from the anarchy of the London Musicians Collective clubnight events in Camden. The clubnights led Ben Haggarty to inaugurate the First UK International Storytelling Festival at Battersea Arts Centre in London in January 1985. After the 1985 festival a few further clubnights were run, before ending in 1986. The clubnights were superseded by the formation of the Company of Storytellers who pioneered the touring of adult evening shows throughout the UK, and by the formation of the Crick Crack Club in 1987, which focused on the programming and development of professional storytellers, their performance skills and their repertoire for adult audiences. | |
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| The West London Storytelling Unit (W.L.S.T.U), was founded in 1981, by members Ben Haggarty, Godfrey Duncan and Daisy Keable and based in an Afro-Caribbean Youth Centre, the Priory in Acton. The members worked together and as solo artists, telling stories mainly in school and community contexts in London. Over time performances for adults also began to be developed. In 1983 W.L.S.T.U became The Storytelling Unit with Marva Cumberbatch, Pomme Clayton, Daisy Keable. In or around 1985 Daisy Keable and Marva Cumberbatch left the Storytelling Unit, at which point Ben Haggarty rejoined and worked with Sally Pomme Clayton for a brief period before the group was disbanded. The increased interest and demand for storytelling performance for adults led to the formation of The Company of Storytellers in 1985. | |
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| storytelling:- |
storyteller: Ben Haggarty male / British / born 30.11.1958 / member of the West London Storytelling Unit |
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| origin:- |
Iraq
Mesapotamian Sumerian |
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| Images of clubnight events at Common Stock Theatre | |
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| Flyer for clubnight 4 | |
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| Flyer for clubnight 4 and clubnight 5 | |
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| Flyer for clubnight 4 and clubnight 5 | |
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| Flyer for clubnight 4 and clubnight 5 | |
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| Flyer for clubnight 4 and clubnight 5 | |
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| Flyer for clubnight 4 and clubnight 5 | |
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| Flyer for clubnight 4 and clubnight 5 | |
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| Click to enlarge images | |
| administration:- |
storyteller; promoter: Ben Haggarty storyteller: Daisy Keable; Georgiana Jerstad; Georgiana Keable storyteller; musician: TUUP; Godfrey Duncan |
| storytelling:- |
Hammersmith, London, England: Common Stock Theatre
16 Oct 1983 storytelling club: West London Storytelling Unit Clubnight storytelling club: Clubnight 4 |
| gift from:- |
storyteller: Ben Haggarty |
email to The LCIS