London Bubble’s summer show for the millennium was a new adaptation of one of the world’s oldest recorded stories.

The production was the company’s first Open Performance Theatre (OPT) project, with a huge cast of participants working alongside professional theatre makers. Because of the success of Gilgamesh, London Bubble decided to stage an OPT project once every three years, a cycle that led to the creation of Punchkin, Enchanter in the summer of 2003.

Gilgamesh, the story of a king on a quest for immortality, involved almost 100 participants, ranging in age from 4 to 70. It was the first time that London Bubble had combined its participatory projects with a professional production. The venues chosen for the tour also differed from previous productions, with the urban locations of Rotherhithe and Deptford blending perfectly with the themes in the story.