Derrek Hines - Gilgamesh, The Play

First published in 2007 by Oberon Books Ltd
Electronic edition published in 2013 Oberon Books Ltd
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www.oberonbooks.com Gilgamesh, The Play Derrek Hines 2007 Derrek Hines is hereby identified as author of this play in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted his moral rights. All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc should be made before commencement of rehearsal to Derrek Hines, care of Oberon Books at the above address. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the authors prior written consent. You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. PB ISBN: 978-1-84002-654-2
E ISBN: 978-1-7831-9366-0 eBook conversion by Replika Press PVT Ltd, India. Visit www.oberonbooks.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that youre always first to hear about our new releases.

For Jo You were the dimension ACT 2, THE LAMENT I wish to thank the following for their support and advice: The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, who commissioned the play; Jane Hytch, Producer, Belgrade Theatre; Will Hammond, my editor at Oberon; Rod Tinson; Jim Hall; and Claudette Bryanston, Co-Artistic Director, Classworks Theatre, and director of Gilgamesh, whose untiring encouragement made it possible. SHIDURI, goddess and wise woman (as mortal) GILGAMESH, King of Uruk ANU, supreme god SHAMHAT, sacred prostitute / agent of Goddess Ishtar ENKIDU, Gilgameshs companion PANON, sergeant ISHTAR, Goddess of Love and War ZEUS, trainee god SENIOR GOD BUZZON, reporter UR-SHANABI, ferryman and boat builder CITIZENS, SECRETARY, GUEST, BRIDEGROOM, SOLDIER, DIRECTOR, CORPORAL, DRUNK, GUARDIAN, FEMALE VENDOR Horse, Bodyguard, Bride, Celestial Bull, Heavenly Staff, Locust Fiends, Bath Attendants Gilgamesh, The Play was first produced by Classworks Theatre, Cambridge, in association with the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, on 7 February 2007 at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth, with the following company: GILGAMESH, Stavros Demetraki SHIDURI / ISHTAR / SHAMHAT, Claire Cogan ENKIDU, Neil Jones ANU / UR-SHANABI / PANON, Alex Jones ZEUS / BUZZON / DIRECTOR, Denver Isaac Director Claudette Bryanston Designer Phil Eddolls Composer Ilona Sekacz Lighting and Projection Design Arnim Friess Company and Education Manager Michael Bodenstein Technical Stage Manager Anette Rawlinson Producer Jane Hytch Eternity (or its like) The Lady Shiduri SHIDURIs drum.SHIDURI, goddess and wise woman (as mortal) GILGAMESH, King of Uruk ANU, supreme god SHAMHAT, sacred prostitute / agent of Goddess Ishtar ENKIDU, Gilgameshs companion PANON, sergeant ISHTAR, Goddess of Love and War ZEUS, trainee god SENIOR GOD BUZZON, reporter UR-SHANABI, ferryman and boat builder CITIZENS, SECRETARY, GUEST, BRIDEGROOM, SOLDIER, DIRECTOR, CORPORAL, DRUNK, GUARDIAN, FEMALE VENDOR Horse, Bodyguard, Bride, Celestial Bull, Heavenly Staff, Locust Fiends, Bath Attendants Gilgamesh, The Play was first produced by Classworks Theatre, Cambridge, in association with the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, on 7 February 2007 at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth, with the following company: GILGAMESH, Stavros Demetraki SHIDURI / ISHTAR / SHAMHAT, Claire Cogan ENKIDU, Neil Jones ANU / UR-SHANABI / PANON, Alex Jones ZEUS / BUZZON / DIRECTOR, Denver Isaac Director Claudette Bryanston Designer Phil Eddolls Composer Ilona Sekacz Lighting and Projection Design Arnim Friess Company and Education Manager Michael Bodenstein Technical Stage Manager Anette Rawlinson Producer Jane Hytch Eternity (or its like) The Lady Shiduri SHIDURIs drum.

SHIDURI in green. SHIDURI: I am Shiduri; I am Life, the song that invests Time with meaning. I, who was the first and shall be the last To walk the Earth, tell you, Man, That until the wheel turns, until breath flows, You are painted into a tableau, A stilled, lush decor, of all that is to come. For Gilgamesh it has turned; he has stepped off the wheel. Like you, a man, woven of time and starstuff, But a king. Like you, he will dance his measure In Fates plummeting lift, His years, like floor numbers, flashing by.

But while his people bend to him, He bends neither to the Gods, nor Death. Gilgamesh, be warned: take care where you lean; Breath thin are the walls of life, And all, so briefly, they contain.

Uruk, South Iraq GILGAMESH, CITIZENS and GUARD GILGAMESH, elevated, being fitted with armour.
Battlements, palms, felluca sails on Euphrates. CITIZEN: There is Gilgamesh, King of Uruk. Look at him: two-thirds divine, zeppelin ego, cock like a trip-hammer, and solid chrome, no-prisoners arrogance. A bully. A bully.

A jock CITIZEN: Well, he is a king. CITIZEN: That should be enough. But what freezes our hearts and boils our brains, is the right he claims to fuck the bride before the groom; so every night thereafter, shame crowds the husbands bed, its seed mingling with his when he sires his children. Crowd edges toward GILGAMESH. No wonder our weddings are concealed, tense, like resistance meetings. But his spies perch in the cracks of the very air we breathe.

And he finds us, God damn him, finds us like a death CITIZEN: Spreads the bride as wide as a prairie, and harvests his pleasure. GILGAMESH: (Wearily.) Clack, clack corpse heads! Crowd shrinks back. (Aside.) I own Uruks women, the shadows they cast, and the light that creates them. Whos to gainsay? Afterwards, the girls tell their horned husbands it was hell. Ho, ho. And on the pillow, where whispers crave countenance, will swear they were dry-wombed as Sahara after I took them.

Strange, then, how like a mirror the city has become to me: I look, and see my face in brats everywhere. But for love, they return to their cobblers and their clerks, each Jill to her Jack, into the tumble and maze of what, for the rest of their lives, love holds for them under its rotten brocade of sentiment and harsh silk cords, that till the end, bind them in their subjugations. And all claim, in their vegetable contentment, that restraint is their freedom. Who games with prison as the prize? To the crowd. My charges. Are they not happy? You, fellow.

CITIZEN: Life is hard. There is nothing behind me but yesterdays toil, and those few siftings of pleasures I steal before sleep. But I am blessed because I love, and am loved. Ahead there is nothing but Death, keen to undress me from Lifes thin garment, as it has two of my children for dust needs no clothing. Until I join them, I labour, and sweat out taxes, which you spend on foreign wars, where I am paying to have people killed who are poorer even than myself. GILGAMESH: This is a concern of the state.