The show, which will feature a cast of 500, has been developed over a two-year period through participatory projects in multiple venues across the capital. Created by the WildWorks team behind The Passion, seen in Port Talbot over the Easter 2011 weekend starring Michael Sheen, Bill Mitchell will direct a cast led by David Baker, Nigel Barrett, Amar Haj Ahmed, Giles King, Robert Luckay, Anna Lingdren, Stella Odunlami and Caroline Partridge. They will be joined by community performers from all over London, but specifically Battersea, Hammersmith, Islington, Southwark and Stratford.
According to press materials, Caledonian Park has been chosen as the site for BABEL, because it so closely mirrors the story itself, with its very own clock tower and a multi-layered history. It has been the site of a hostelry (at the turn of the 17th century), a fashionable tea garden (1750s), a venue for bulldog fights and bull baiting (early 19th century), the place where trade unionists gathered to demand the release of the Tolpuddle Martyrs (1834), a cattle market (mid-19th century), an abattoir (early 20th century), and, finally, in 1969, the site was turned into a housing estate and local park. As with the park, the roots of BABEL itself go far back, to one of the first stories. In the beginning, the people felt compelled to come together and build a City and a Tower, but, over time, they abandoned both and the people spread far and wide and formed tribes. Now, in 2012, the eyes of the world are on London and, once again, the people are gathering and the Tower is calling them back.
WildWorks was founded by Mitchell in 2005. Based in Cornwall, WildWorks is an art-led international theatre company focussing on site-specific events making large-scale spectacular performances and artworks that grow out of their locations including quarries, cliffs, harbours and derelict industrial sites.
World Stages London is a theatre celebration of the international and multicultural nature of London, culminating in a series of shows to be presented in May 2012.
To book tickets, contact the box office on 020 7223 2223 or visit www.babellondon.com for more details.
