BAHRAIN MS:The Story of Gilgamesh: Making Epic Theatre
Extracted from Scene 2008- 09 June Issue 4
visited stockades, and was present
at battles to cheer up troops
(p.126), call on Gods and invoke
spiritual protection, “great moral
leader” (Boahen, 2003)
• Went around in full traditional
Asante battle dress and carried a
gun
• Organized women to sing
momomme or war chants
• Also had her own army of about
3,500
• Led or took part in many of the
negotiations between the British
and the Asante to end the war
• Sent messages that she wished for
peace
• Fought to “ensure the security of
the Golden Stool and preserve the
sovereignity, independence, and
culture of Asante” (Boahen, 2003)
Facts
• The Anglo-Asante War also known
as the Yaa Asantewaa War, Ya
Asantewaa Sa, or Yaa Awantewaa
Ko
• History told through documentary
sources and oral traditions
• The Asante War of 1900-1 was the
only war in which the leader and
commander-in-chief of the Asante
army was a woman
• Was the last of the Anglo-Asante
wars
• Most well known female figure in
Ghana
Notes taken from Boahen, A. A.
(2003). Yaa Asantewaa and the
Asante-British war of 1900-1. SubSaharan Publishers: Accra, Ghana.
Bucharest MS
Our darkest fears: mood, tension,
suspense and a dash of Dracula
Elizabeth Hunt Lucarini and Greg
Jemison chose one of the most
talked about themes of the year!
A middle school student spending
three days exploring the stories of
Dracula, visiting his castle and
dabbling with associated technical
skills – what could be better?
“Dracula has been attributed to
many literary genres including vampire
literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel
and invasion literature. Structurally it is
an epistolary novel, that is, told as a
series of diary entries and letters.
Literary critics have examined many
themes in the novel, such as the role of
women in Victorian culture, conventional
and conservative sexuality, immigration,
colonialism, postcolonialism and
folklore. Although Stoker did not invent
the vampire, the novel's influence on
the popularity of vampires has been
singularly responsible for many theatrical
and film interpretations throughout the
20th and 21st centuries.”
Text taken from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula
for a full plot summary.
VLAD TEPES – The Impaler
(DRACULA) Prince of Wallachia
1448,1456-1462,1476, Son of Vlad
Dracul (Knight of the Order of the
Dragon-1431) and Grandson of Mircea
the Great, King of Wallachia (13861418). Adopting a totalitarian
leadership, Vlad Tepes introduced a
very strict order in Wallachia,
strengthened the army, helped the
trade with the neighboring countries,
and was merciless towards those who
went against him, be they noblemen
(boyars) or of a lower status. Externally,
he fought The Ottoman Empire,
against which he scored famous
victories.
Text from http://www.
draculascastle.com/index3.html
All festival participants spent the
day at Castle Bran…
Bran Castle was originally a fortress
built by the Knights of the Teutonic
Order in the year 1212. It was known
by the name of Dietrichstein at the
time. Later on, towards the end of the
13th century, it was taken over by the
Saxons in that region in order to
protect the City of Brasov, an
important trade center. Vlad Tepes
used Bran Castle as headquarters for
his incursions into Transylvania.
This castle should not be mistaken
for the actual Castle Dracula (now in
ruins), which is located on the Arges
River.
Text from http://www.
draculascastle.com/index3.html
From Emmy Abrahamson
– Festival AD
In all my years at ISTA I have never
seen a staff team so excited about a
theme! Even before the event I received
emails from staff saying that they felt a
childish excitement about it! At the staff
meeting before the festival we
confessed our own personal fears as
well as brainstormed approaches. As
the visiting schools had already
explored the theme of “Our Darkest
Fears” with their presentations it was
quite important that we should try to
make it as site-specific as possible so
that the ensemble leaders didn’t cover
the same ground. I stressed to the
ensemble leaders that they should also
try to explore how we achieve
unsettling and scary moments on stage
and what it is exactly that makes these
moments chilling. Music, texts and
props were also brought in by the
ensemble leaders as stimuli to set the
students creating dark moods and
tensions. We spent the whole Friday
visiting Bran Castle and Risvov Fortress
where the ensembles explored, took
notes, made sketches and did sitespecific exercises with their ensemble
leaders. And with the bonus of having a
tech ensemble, the final performance
was incredible with fog, sound effects
and spooky lights. All the ensembles
had created very different pieces
containing dark woods, executions,
nightmares and ending with all the
students transforming into vampires.
Just as the final performance was
about to start a huge white screen
slowly came down on stage out of
nowhere adding to the feel of
unexpectedness and eeriness – though
we hoped it was a sign from Vlad the
Impaler it was, the result of a screen
button being leaned on by mistake...
Bahrain MS
The story of Gilgamesh: making epic
theatre
Tony Thomas proposed the story
of Gilgamesh as the stimulus for
his MS Festival. Staff then
explored this within the context of
epic theatre…
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Translations of many cuneiform
tablets found at Ur, in Mesopotamia,
have enabled scholars to piece
together the lengthy story contained in
the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The ancient poem
reveals that Dilmun
(Bahrain) was a land
of eternal youth; a
holy land without
sickness or death;
and how the one
mortal to whom the
gods granted
immortality; Ziusudra,
the survivor of the
great flood, was
given abode in that
Scene | 2008-9 June Issue 4 | 17
holy land of Dilmun. Gilgamesh, having
been devastated by the death of his
closest friend, Enkidu, eventually
arrived in Dilmun by a small boat,
captained by Urshanabi, the boatman.
Beset by personal fears of his own
mortality and inevitable death, he
questioned Ziusudra about how man
could avoid such an end. Impressed
by Gilgamesh’s persistence, and by the
considerable physical effort he had
made to travel to Dilmun, Ziusudra did
not want him to return to his people
empty handed. In the version which
has been interpreted by N.K. Sanders,
the story states that Ziusudra said:
“Gilgamesh, I shall reveal a secret
thing, it is a mystery of the gods that I
am telling you. There is a plant that
grows under the water, it has a prickle
like a thorn, like a rose; it will wound
your hands, but if you succeed in
taking it, then your hands will hold that
which restores his lost youth to a man.”
The story relates how Gilgamesh
dived down to the sea-bed in the
same fashion as the pearl-divers of
recent times, with stones hooked on to
his feet, and how he found the ‘plant’
which duly pricked his hand, but he
held on and managed to reach the
shore with his valuable catch. Believing
he had the secret which would restore
his youth, he set off back to his home
in Mesopotamia together with the
boatman who had brought him to
Dilmun. During the crossing from
Dilmun to the mainland of Arabia,
Gilgamesh was reported to have seen
a ‘well of cool water’, probably one of
the freshwater springs which occur in
the sea off Bahrain. The epic tells how
he bathed in it still holding on to his
prize, but that a serpent (presumably a
sea-snake) which sensed the
‘sweetness of the plant’ snatched it
from him. Given that there was no
clear understanding of the difference
18 | Scene | 2008-9 June Issue 4
between animals and plants at this
time, and that the organism which
Ziusudra told Gilgamesh to collect was
in the sea, the species which most
closely fits the description is the
common black-spined sea-urchin
(Echinothrix). Following the loss of the
‘plant of eternal youth’ to the seasnake which was then considered to
have ‘stolen the secret’, Gilgamesh
and his boatman abandoned their
small craft and set-off northwards on
foot. This clearly suggests that the
serpent was indeed a sea-snake and
the pool referred to was in the sea.
Many scholars have studied this epic,
giving their own interpretations of its
meaning, but up until recently it has
not been so clear that the Dilmun
referred to in the ancient text is
Bahrain. Given that this assumption is
correct, other aspects of the story
become more meaningful and parts of
it give a flavour of how Bahrain and its
people were thought of by others.
Text reproduced with the kind
permission of the Nataional
Museum of Bahrain.
festival and finally arrived at The
Seed... Here are the images and
words that provided inspiration for
the staff and young people at Eden.
And... like Terezin we look forward
to returning to Eden next year...
Nature’s blueprint
See it in plants
See it in the roof of this building
Fibonacci’s sequence, spirals one way,
spirals the other
Cornwall MS
ISTA at Eden: the Seed
A little like Terezin, this festival
marked a new journey for us in
many ways. Collaborating with a
cultural organisation rather than a
host school the process of
producing our first Eden MS festival
has been a completely enjoyable
and fascinating journey. Alongside
finding accommodation
and securing local travel has
been the collaboration with
Education Officer at Eden Pam
Horton. We have had many
discussions over the past year
about the specific stimulus for the
An idea
A seed
In a chamber
At the heart
Of the Core
(Initial concept drawing by Peter
Randall-Page, sculptor).
One sculptor