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'sThe 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 Man scene. It is a claim that has passed into Hollywood legend.

Set in a hotel room in Culver City, California,Babylon Heightsis Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh's scabrous and hilarious imagining of what could, very possibly, have led to that dwarf suicide.

Babylon Heightspremiered at the Exit Theatre, San Francisco, in June 2006.

Dean Cavanagh is an award-winning screenwriter adn film and TV producer. He lives in Bingley, West Yorkshire, with his wife and children.

Irvine Welsh is the author of eight novels and four books of shorter fiction. He currently lives in Chicago.

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.