Babylon Heights

If you put four dwarfs in one room with enough opium and alcohol, it´s bound to end in tears...In 1935, MGM studios embarked on a movie adaptation of L. Frank Baum´s "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". The production called for the casting of many dwarfs to play the Munchkins of the mythical Land of Oz and the studio began recruiting ´small persons´ from all over the world. During production, rumours spread around Hollywood of wild Munchkin sex orgies, drunken behavior and general dwarf debauchery. More sinisterly, a Munchkin is said to have committed suicide by hanging himself on the set during filming - what appears to be a small human body is clearly visible hanging from a tree in the Tin Woodman scene. It is a claim that has passed into Hollywood legend. Set in a hotel room in Culver City, California, "Babylon Heights" is Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh´s scabrous and hilarious imagining of what could, very possibly, have led to that dwarf suicide. "Babylon Heights" is premiered at the Exit Theatre, San Francisco, in June 2006.
A new play by Irvine Welsh and co-writer Dean Cavanagh, about the debauchery of the munchkins involved in the filming of the classic, The Wizard of the Oz