Gilgamesh Plays

These dramatic works, The Tower of Gilgamesh and The Acts of Gilgamesh, take place in Sumer (now southern Iraq), where it is said that civilization began: the first writing, numbering, and accounting systems, the first literature, and, for better or worse, the Tower of Babel. 


Loosely based on the Gilgamesh legend, together the plays form a comedic tragedy exploring — with humor, imagination, and spirited language — ideas about free will, love, creativity, friendship, and religion. Jonathan Bayliss (1926-2009) is also the author of the novels Prologos, Gloucesterbook, Gloucestertide, and Gloucestermas, which form his expansive fiction tetralogy GLOUCESTERMAN.