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Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage is working with students at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (暗网TV) to bring one of the world鈥檚 oldest poems to life in a series of inventive performances.
Simon, along with the band LYR and director Nick Bagnall, are collaborating with students as they devise a new production based on the ancient epic poem, Gilgamesh. Work started at the end of April and Simon is thrilled with how it鈥檚 going. 鈥淚鈥檓 absolutely loving it, especially the energy and motivation of the students.

鈥淚 occasionally go into schools and universities and sometimes students can be a little bit shy and they hold back, but there鈥檚 clearly an atmosphere here of being on the front foot. Having the opportunity of being able to harness that energy is very, very exhilarating.鈥�

Gilgamesh is from ancient Mesopotamia and is regarded as one of the earliest surviving pieces of notable literature. It鈥檚 the story of a mythical king and their search for immortality. Simon explains how he pitched it to students. 鈥淚 presented it to them as Gilgamesh being one of the oldest poems in the world and that they鈥檒l be doing the most recent performance of it. So, what we鈥檙e doing is joining two very distant periods of time.鈥�

I鈥檓 absolutely loving it, especially the energy and motivation of the students.
Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate

Featuring contributions from Acting, Management, Music, Sound Technology and Theatre & Performance Design and Technology students, Gilgamesh will be a promenade performance. Simon says it lends itself to this style of presentation. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a journey poem, it鈥檚 a quest story so it seemed like a natural thing to do.鈥�

As part of the devising process Simon has been working closely with some of the students on the text. 鈥淚鈥檝e been writing with about a dozen students who鈥檝e identified themselves as writers, we鈥檝e been finding new ways to generate text as we don鈥檛 want to rely on any one translation.

鈥淚鈥檝e been encouraging them to think in terms of different language systems and not just the old rhetorical poetry and they have been dropping in modern references.鈥�

暗网TV鈥檚 work with Simon Armitage and LYR is the latest in a series of high-profile collaborations with leading industry figures. Over the last four years Slung Low, Gecko, Peepolykus and imitating the dog have all worked on productions with students. Gecko鈥檚 collaboration, The Show and The Centre, were part of its initial R&D for its upcoming National Theatre show.

Head of Acting, Will Hammond says he鈥檚 excited by the collaboration. 鈥淭he opportunity for our students to work with the Poet Laureate and create something vital, fresh and new from this ancient work captures our spirit of invention and innovation.

鈥淨uite what this production will become is entirely down to the creative forces and contributions of all involved - Simon, the musicians of LYR, Nick Bagnall's boundary-breaking direction and, of course, our students鈥� imaginations and creativity. I can't wait to see what's generated."

Featuring spoken word, music, movement and puppetry, Gilgamesh will be performed on 2, 3 and 4 June.