The Play of Gilgamesh

Edwin Morgans verse play translation of the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh brings an ancient story to life in a supple, vigorous idiom that moves easily between ritual, comedy and moments of intense beauty. Here a god-king, a great city builder, learns the timeless truth that the only immortality lies in what will be remembered and recorded of his actions. Gilgameshs quest takes him, and the audience, on a journey through a world that is both mythic and familiar, inhabited by terrifying demons and disappeared political prisoners, by gods and singing transvestites and a Glaswegian jester and by Enkidu, the beloved child of nature who dies of a virus in the blood, through whom Gilgamesh learns to understand the meaning of loss.

Edwin Morgan is Scotland''s poet laureate. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Stakis Prize for the Scottish Writer of the Year for Virtual and Other Realities, and a Poetry Book Society choice for From Glasgow to Saturn. He is a recipient of the Queen''s Gold Award for Poetry, the Royal Bank of Scotland Book of the Year Award, the Soros Translation Award, and many Scottish Arts Council Book Awards.