Babylon Heights

Kleptopink

BABYLON HEIGHTS - The Attic Studio and The Mill Theatre, Dundrum are proud to present the European Premiere of a new play from the author of Trainspotting.

Written by Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh
Directed by Graham Cantwell
Produced by Marie-Louise O’Donnell

http://www.theatticstudio.net/babylon/index.htm
http://www.milltheatre.com/

Date: From Tuesday, 8th August - Saturday, 19th August
Starting at 8pm, (Over 18's)
Admission €20/€18
The Mill Theatre is located in the heart of the new Dundrum Town Centre.

If you put four dwarfs in a hotel 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 behaviour 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 Woodsman 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.

This production marks the European premiere of this wonderfully irreverent play.

Glitter

Between this, Wicked opening in London and some soon-to-be-released news on another production it's like Oz Revival year!

Can't wait to see this, read about it a while ago and it sounds really interesting.

lukegriffen

Thanks for posting this. I'm very impressed the guardian article mentioned the mill theatre, I didn't realise irvine welsh lived in dublin.

If anyone lives near Dundrum, please support this theatre, I'd hate to see it close (I've nothing to do with it by the way). I was at a play in June, 6 actors on stage and about 12 in the audience.

Sm0ke

just back from it there. nice little theatre it was very close to slod out tonight.

the story is good and has more of irvine Welsh's cringy worthy discriptions(like juise terry in porno or the scene with the tongue in filth). overall good preformances by the actors, Charles was acted well in my opinion.

anyway im crap at reviews!! id reccomend seeing this if ur a fan of irvine welsh or if u want to be shocked! enjoy a 4/5 production

antrophe

lukegriffen wrote:

Thanks for posting this. I'm very impressed the guardian article mentioned the mill theatre, I didn't realise irvine welsh lived in dublin.

If anyone lives near Dundrum, please support this theatre, I'd hate to see it close (I've nothing to do with it by the way). I was at a play in June, 6 actors on stage and about 12 in the audience.

I'm sure that theatre won't close, its the dividend you get for having your town centre turned into a shopping centre.

No surprise it was mentioned in the Guardian, it was the European premiere after all yesterday.

Juxtapose

i wouldnt be mad about the theatre myself.. they were originally going to have a 120 seat capacity but moved it to 200 to make more profit
you can notice how its raked that the levels are exactly great for viewing

i woud have thought a new theatre would be able to provide the best layouts

anyways i saw this show and it has great protential but it seems to drag on for far too long. theres nothing worse than losing concentration due to a play running past its peak. the acting is well portrayed and the set is spectacular

i would recommend people to see it, but be warned it does run quite a bit longer than expected

Stew1971

lukegriffen wrote:

Thanks for posting this. I'm very impressed the guardian article mentioned the mill theatre, I didn't realise irvine welsh lived in dublin.

If anyone lives near Dundrum, please support this theatre, I'd hate to see it close (I've nothing to do with it by the way). I was at a play in June, 6 actors on stage and about 12 in the audience.

There's no need to worry about that. Heights is doing very well.:) I was in a show there in July in the middle of the"heat wave" and we were getting around 70 people most nights.

lukegriffen

antrophe wrote:

I'm sure that theatre won't close, its the dividend you get for having your town centre turned into a shopping centre.

Dundrum Town Centre is doing nothing for the arts or for the local community, they won't even display notices/brochures for events in Dundrum at the information desks. People who visit the town centre don't tend to have theatre in mind. The shopping centre epitomises how culturally shallow we've become & how we've completely lost our identity, you could be in any country in the world. There was plenty of space where they could have accomodated local traders in small retail units or even have small stands selling jewellery / handcrafts / organic food market etc.

Anyway back to the theatre, glad to hear it's getting decent attendance, & yes I agree the theatre could have been better designed, and I found the seats quite uncomfortable. Babylon doesn't seem to have got great reviews, I've heard it's really long & the script not particulary good.

SBob

Really enjoyed Babylon Heights despite its long running time. Well acted i thought, and from am enjoyably different perspective. I was a bit disappointed to hear that the 'restricted growth association' objected to it considering that i think it's angle is realistic and empathetic in a way i've never seen about 'dwarf's' in movies or plays before, but i suppose with a name like that what can you expect.

I liked the theatre and liked the setting (didn't know they had 'dunne and crescenzi' out there). I found the instantly hard hitting nature of the second half after the lighthearted first half thought provoking and entertainingly dark.
Bit long but i didn't notice it all that much

antrophe

lukegriffen wrote:

Dundrum Town Centre is doing nothing for the arts or for the local community, they won't even display notices/brochures for events in Dundrum at the information desks. People who visit the town centre don't tend to have theatre in mind. The shopping centre epitomises how culturally shallow we've become & how we've completely lost our identity, you could be in any country in the world.

I completely agree with you on the above by the way. What I was saying was that it is unlikely that the theatre will close because it is the very attempt to give an appendage of depth to a shallow proect of gentrifaction in Dundrum.

I did a review of the play over here if you're interested:

http://soundtracksforthem.blogspot.com/2006/08/theatre-review-stuck-here-like-that.html