Paradise lost
They looked the picture of innocence. But behind the scenes of The Wizard of Oz, the actors playing the munchkins were said to be indulging in drunken orgies. Now Irvine Welsh has turned their story into a play - and sparked a storm Thursday July 20, 2006The Guardian
Confined to their hotel ... Judy Garland with the munchkin actors in The Wizard of Oz
It's often difficult to identify the genesis point of any piece of work. In the case of Babylon Heights - the new play I've written with my screenwriting partner Dean Cavanagh, set in 1930s Hollywood - it probably began with one of those throwaway conversations he and I are prone to having about our favourite films. Always high on the list is The Wizard of Oz. This modern fable now seems an indispensable part of our cultural heritage in the west. I've been enthralled by it since I was a kid, and still am. The more we discussed it, the more obsessed we grew by all the contradictions that surround it.
Frank Baum's original book had an agrarian socialistic message, yet it spawned a lavishly expensive MGM production, at a time when the big studio system of film-making dominated Hollywood. The film was made during the Great Depression, at a time when people were desperate - not to succeed and thrive, as is the assumed cultural lexicon in America, but simply to survive. The more we delved into Ozlore, the more it looked like fertile ground for dramatic conflict.
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1824732,00.html
Confined to their hotel ... Judy Garland with the munchkin actors in The Wizard of Oz
It's often difficult to identify the genesis point of any piece of work. In the case of Babylon Heights - the new play I've written with my screenwriting partner Dean Cavanagh, set in 1930s Hollywood - it probably began with one of those throwaway conversations he and I are prone to having about our favourite films. Always high on the list is The Wizard of Oz. This modern fable now seems an indispensable part of our cultural heritage in the west. I've been enthralled by it since I was a kid, and still am. The more we discussed it, the more obsessed we grew by all the contradictions that surround it.
Frank Baum's original book had an agrarian socialistic message, yet it spawned a lavishly expensive MGM production, at a time when the big studio system of film-making dominated Hollywood. The film was made during the Great Depression, at a time when people were desperate - not to succeed and thrive, as is the assumed cultural lexicon in America, but simply to survive. The more we delved into Ozlore, the more it looked like fertile ground for dramatic conflict.
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1824732,00.html
