Last week on campus, we had four chances to watch women played by men, men played by women, gods in jeans and epics post modernized. I attended two performances in the C-Block Auditorium. The epic of Gilgamesh was adapted and staged by Erica Hughes, graduate student in the Department of HART. The cast was composed of Bilkent students from different departments. I think most people are familiar with Gilgamesh, one of the oldest pieces of literature, at least from the CCI or HCIV course. But all pre-conceived information and all prejudices about whatever had been learned from encyclopedias or in classes had to be left behind as soon as the audience passed through the doors of the auditorium.

Hughes not only stylized the ancient text and added many funny moments through a parade of colorful characters and their costumes, mimics, habits, but she also reconstructed the story in various ways. To begin with, she reversed the sexes of the characters, which was quite revolutionary from my point of view. Therefore, women who acted like macho men played the men and men clad in latex dresses and garters played the women. Of course, the anarchist attitude the play had was not limited to sex and its connotations. Another novelty was the narrative: Gilgamesh is essentially an epic narrated by a third person, but in the play the gods were employed to tell the story, as explained in the leaflet, "in order to convey the bulk of the play." The story was brought alive through props (cheerleader's pompoms along with authentic carpets and computer magazines), costumes (converse shoes, fairy wings and a Cannibal Corpse t-shirt) and most of all, relaxed, amusing acting. In short, Hughes' Gilgamesh definitely offered me (and I guess, others) an alternative perception to epics, myths and beyond and lots of laughs. Those who missed the play, well, you did miss a lot.