He is the hero of a Babylonian legend which recounts his exploits in an ultimately unsuccessful quest for immortality.

In Marina Carr’s bold retelling of this foundational text she dramatizes the abuse of strength and grievous harm to the natural world. Her play embraces the central figure’s venture to the forbidden cedar forest, the last sacred ground of the gods, his homo-erotic relationship with the wild man, Enkidu, and the price of ecological wastage.

It culminates in epic wisdom: ‘Look, none of these things ever happened but they’re all true.’