BABEL is a dark comedy set in the near future. Two couples are having trouble getting pregnant and the lengths they go to in order to have a baby raises the specter of eugenics, explores the societal value of a baby, and asks us what we are willing to risk for love.
If you like Booker’s “Black Mirror,” Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go,” or Haley’s “The Nether,” then this play is for you.
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.
Characters: 4
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.
“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
Author
Jacqueline Goldfinger (she/they) began their career as a teaching artist and dramaturg with a focus on education and new work. Their career evolved into Literary Management and Artistic Administration. Today, they are a writer, educator, and arts advocate who works nationally and internationally on performative texts which interweave humor and heartbreak, speaking to our shared humanity while honoring the nuanced identities of each character.
They are currently the Chair of the 2022 LMDA International Performing Arts Conference and will be a Presenter at this year’s LAMBDA Literary Awards.
They will be the Visiting Professor of Theatre, Head of MFA Dramaturgy at Indiana University for the 2022-23 academic year. They are an Affiliated Artist at the BMI Lehman Engel Workshop, New Georges, and the National New Play Network.
Their opera and choral libretti have been performed and broadcast around the world. Their new full-length opera, Alice Tierney, with Composer Dr. Melissa Dunphy won the Opera America Discovery Grant and the Schlichting Commission. In 2023, it will world premiere at... [FULL BIO]