Gilgamesh
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Gilgamesh Poster
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Gilgamesh is the first A3 performance for the 2010/11 season at the RSAMD.
What lasts, what changes, what survives? Is anything immortal?
The epic of Gilgamesh is the world’s oldest surviving poem, over 4000 years old, but only discovered in the middle of the 19th century.
The Play of Gilgamesh was written by Edwin Morgan, Scotland's national poet. Morgan’s verse-play translation brings the ancient story of the hero king Gilgamesh to life, moving easily between ritual, comedy and moments of intense beauty – and has never been performed until now.
Promising to be a highlight of the season, renowned theatremaker Tam Dean Burn directs an edited version of Morgan's larger than life play, with songs and original music composed and played live by jazz and Scottish traditional music performers.
Flickr set by Fiona Nisbet
Cast
Gilgamesh, a king Sam Spanjian
Enkidu, a wild man Robert Shaw
Shamhat, a harlot Tamara Donnelly
Hamman, Armourer, Councillor - Ben Allan
Guard, Ninsun, Lesbian Blacksmith, Humbaba and Doctor - Lynn Ferguson
Nedu, Transvestite, Councillor, Armourer, Priest and Anu - Andrew Marquardt
Harlot, Married Woman, Ishtar and Nurse - Emily Rees
Female Prisoner, Jester and Nurse - Rebecca Smith
Production Team
Production Manager Lynfryn Mackenzie
Stage Manager Laura Jarvis
Deputy Stage Manager James Clelland
Assistant Stage Managers Ross Oliver, Samantha Burt
Technical Stage Manager Thomas Velluet - Draper
Production Technicians Iain Jolly , Simon Legg , Fiona Nisbet
Production Electrician Jonny Reed
Assistant Production Electrician Madeleine Hillmann
Electrics Crew Fraser Walker , Chris Gowling , Jonathan Towers
Sound Designer Jamie Fallen
Assistant Sound Designer Heather Sorensen
Technical Challenges
Gauze Tower
During the recent production of "Gilgamesh" there were few technical challenges that we had to overcome. The main challenge was to rig a gauze tower that hugged the set, could be rigged simply, had a sharp crease down the corner and could be flown live.
Bull
We also had to come up with a way of rigging a bull so that it could be safely rigged, yet easily detached during the show by performers.
Reviews
Gilgamesh, RSAMD, Glasgow Published on 4 Nov 2010 in The Herald
Keith Bruce
A worthy tribute to the mastery of Morgan
***
Let us hope that the delegates at IETM are not so distracted by the packed programme of Scottish theatrical hits that has been assembled for their delectation to ignore what might be the most interesting theatre project on this weekend’s list.
Tam Dean Burn’s staging of Edwin Morgan’s lively version of the story of the Mesopotamian king has a cast of nine third-year drama students and a pit band of half a dozen from the jazz and traditional music courses, who have each composed one of the songs in the score. If the performances are not always the most measured you’ll see, there is none without merit and Sam Spanjian as Gilgamesh and Andrew Rothney as his primitive confrere Enkidu are very much in command of their roles, while Grant McFarlane’s Song of the Transvestites and Tricia Mullan’s Song of the Little Refreshment are the pick of the score.
Burn and his young company have taken on a truly epic task, and it would be unfair to assess it as anything other than a work-in-progress (it doesn’t so much end as stop) but the conception of the work is really quite superb, cleverly exploiting contemporary resonances with conflict in the Middle East and staged with effective use of video projection as well as a distinctly Peter Brook-esque earthy honesty.
Student costume designer Eilidh Livingstone’s kilts and head-dresses are also a crucially effective ingredient.
Just as importantly, though, the company do Morgan proud. His text is spiced with delicious jokes, both geo-historical at the expense of Babylonians and Egyptians and more contemporary (the conversational range of hairdressers), and his rhymes are often laugh-out-loud outrageous and well served by the verse-speaking of these young players.