Full-Length (100-120 Min.)
Dark Comedy
3W, 1M

Play

Babel


Buy Script

Explore the script before you license. TRW Perusal Packs and Digital Plays are now available on Heyzine where you can instantly view on any web browser on any device, anytime.

Clear

Synopsis

Renee and Dani are expecting. Ann and Jamie are also expecting. And a Giant Stork suddenly starts talking. Set in the near future, Babel paints the picture of a society where embryos must be pre-certified. When each couple faces the test results, things take a complicated turn. This dark comedy begs the question, “How far will we go to create the ‘perfect’ world?”

Casting & Production


Casting

Our story takes place in a future society where racial, ethnic, and gender bias has been generally replaced in mainstream culture by genetic bias. We can now chart and judge the genetic code of every individual before birth. As such, the casting is very flexible.

In general, it should look something like this:

ANN — a female in her 20s/30s, Jamie’s wife, high strung, Race Flexible

JAMIE —  a male in his 30s/40s, Ann’s husband, affable, Race Flexible

RENEE — a female in her 30s/40s, Dani’s wife, nurturer, Race Flexible

DANI — a female in her 40s, Renee’s wife, senior executive determination, Race Flexible THE STORK MASCOT (played by Jamie), has the voice of a young Harvey Fierstein

Important:
No one looks pregnant in this play.


Setting

Length
90 Minutes, No Intermission

Time/Place
The Future / A City near a Beach

Set
Dealer’s Choice – you can do this play with four chairs and a coffee mug or mammoth sets. Whatever you choose, it should allow the play to move quickly; long set changes will ruin the comic timing.

Media

"Remarkable… Babel is a fascinating, at times funny, and at times terrifying vision of a future."

- Broadway World

"Babel exposes the fault lines in the best-laid plans, a timeless message that applies even to our most innate impulse as a species—to survive, to reproduce."

- Thinking Dance

"Bitingly clever, seriously funny, and intriguing from start to finish, Jacqueline Goldfinger's dark comedy Babel is exactly the sort of well-executed science fiction theater that can change your perspective forever."

- Talkin’ Broadway

"Quirky characters, quippy dialogue, and the startling collision between the goofy and the deadly serious."

- The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Dynamic, Stirring, Humorous…Goldfinger weaves humor throughout her script—sometimes dark, sometimes almost slapsticky—breaking the tension of the play’s larger themes…Goldfinger clearly did her research with this script, which is part of what makes it so effective."

- Broad Street Review