Edubba’a – How to stage Sumerian literature for a public audience

Abstract

The play Edubba’a (‘At School’) was first performed in 2022 at the 75th anniversary of the Swiss Academy for Humanities and Social Sciences in Bern, Switzerland. The literary source of the play is a nearly 4000-year-old Sumerian narrative from Mesopotamia known today as Edubba’a A or Schooldays. Its manuscripts had been copied by apprentice scribes in the Old Babylonian period. The story revolves around everyday life in the Edubba’a, the Mesopotamian school. Protagonist and first-person narrator is a pupil who is bullied by his teachers and finally persuades his father to use bribery to convince the headmaster of his talent in writing. Staging the play was an interdisciplinary project, involving students and doctoral students from the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the University of Bern and hobby actors. The play was preceded by a short film adaptation of the same literary source in 2018. Since then, a seminar on ancient textiles and fashion taught in collaboration with the Institute of Art History of the University of Bern discussed and designed costumes according to ancient visual and textual sources. A second seminar critically reviewed the reception of ancient West Asian history and material culture in theatre and film productions. The project had the aim to teach students about the processes and relevance of public outreach and to educate a broad public audience about Sumerian language as well as Old Babylonian literature and material culture in a creative and entertaining way. Through the performative reconstruction of everyday school life in ancient Mesopotamia, furthermore, we intended to stimulate an intercultural dialogue about childhood and education in ancient and modern times. Edubba’a is a playful approach to philological and archaeological sources that loosens up the otherwise very academic discussion. A film adaptation of the play is currently under development in order to reach a larger public audience and to document the project for future teaching.