NICHOLA WARD
Performing
BABYLON ALLEY

Babylon Alley

is an epic poem – and a celebration of Canadian voicing. It is set in a contemporary and diverse environment (the Gay Village in Toronto) – The action takes place in a single day:

Through her, we are given private and very personal insights into the secret lives of the building’s residents. With a narrator as guide, we witness their exterior faces and innermost thoughts discovering that on this particular day they are dealing with the recent and unexpected death of “Mary Margarita”.

This is the context and the conflict our characters need to resolve. It causes them to question their own identity as lovers, artists, roommates, husbands…and mothers. This “chosen family” journeys through their grieving process in life affirming ways: sometimes comically,
sometimes dramatically, sometimes nobly, and sometimes just plain drunk.

They grow and, ultimately, their redemption is born from becoming more authentic in their own identities. In essence, as a result of Mary’s life and death they all “transition” to new and better lives.