Babylon Heights
14 June 2006

Unlikely as it seems, the diminutive, eternally perky inhabitants of the Land of Oz are the focus of Irvine Welsh’s new play. But, true to form, Welsh is determined to show that we are not in Kansas any more.

Babylon Heights

Irvine Welsh does not seem like the sort of author interested in writing a play about Munchkins. From the Scottish writer’s 1993 debut novel Trainspotting, about the drug-addled existence of a gang of disaffected Edinburgh youths, to his forthcoming The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs, concerning a womanising alcoholic’s journey towards self-knowledge, Welsh’s writing has earned him notoriety on both sides of the Atlantic as a chronicler of urban depravity.

Unlikely as it seems, the diminutive, eternally perky inhabitants of the Land of Oz are the focus of Welsh’s new play. But, true to form, Welsh is determined to show that we are not in Kansas any more.

Co-written with the British screenwriter Dean Cavanagh, the salacious comedy draws on a Hollywood myth about the on-set suicide of a midget actor during the shooting of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Inspired by rumours of wild Munchkin sex orgies and general dwarf debauchery that allegedly took place after hours (Judy Garland reputedly once referred to her pint-sized colleagues as “little drunks”), Welsh’s and Cavanagh’s play imagines the circumstances that might have driven Charles Merryweather, a British midget and Munchkin ensemble member, to his untimely death.

Though enthusiastically performed, the arrhythmic world premiere staging of Babylon Heights at the boxy Exit Theatre might make audiences want to click their heels three times and vow there’s no place like home. It is not entirely the production’s fault: all four characters are based on stereotypes and three out of the four refuse to evolve.

Nevertheless, by insisting the drama be performed by full-sized rather than dwarf actors and staged on a larger-than-life set, the authors imbue their sordid tale with a layer of thoughtful allegory: Babylon Heights may be about the mistreatment of little people on the Oz film set, but it is equally about mistreatment of “little people” in a bullying, “big people”- centric world.

Babylon Heights
by Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh
The Exit Theatre
Directed by James Reese
Starring Russ Davison, Chris Yule, Dennnis McIntyre, Brittany McGregor