Characters
A multi-cultural hotchpotch of current life - there's Kaz and her Boyfriend and Bullit the cat, 'radical' documentary maker Shena, Tatiana the Tart, Syd who runs the scams, Deen the wannabe R'n'B star... They're each concerned with their own journey - their 'inner life' - in all its light and dark aspects. Like the rest of us, they're pre-occupied with the way we live now - our obsessions with body, diet, religion, politics, relationships, leisure, money and Fame!, illegal immigrants, drug barons, Mafia, greed, crime and sudden death all feature. Life is a grungy fight for survival. As Tat, the tart says, "I used to live in a castle, but now I live in a car."
But though our characters lurch, hanging by their fingernails, from crisis to crisis, they remain cheerfully convinced they are winning. Together they create a wildly subversive picture of post-modern survival.
All occupy live-work "lofts" in a battered, lead-piped, asbestos-ridden, nuclear slug infested, post-industrial building. One loft in particular, Kaz's is the focal point through which the entire posse passes.
Kaz: A middle class "young" writer. A great follower of Hemingway's notion that all writers should be chain-smoking alcoholics. She's also a great believer in "inner life" and vigorously pursues it. When sober.
The Boyfriend: A cool, laid back photographer. Doesn't say much...because he smokes too much.
Tatiana: A Russian Lady of the Night, also in the hands (literally) of the Balkan Mafia. Likes a toot (or twenty) of crank.
Shena: An angry documentary maker. Is she also a dyke? According to Deen - who's the
subject of one of her groundbreaking films - definitely.
Deen: The official 'Ditch Rap poet (he's got a residency in the pole dancing bar) He's really a very posh boy - and as Shena points out - a bit light in his Timberlands. All mouth... and no trousers.
Pashmina: A delightful Asian girl from the 'Burbs. Owner of a stunning new shoe shop, The Yellow Brick Boutique. Falls in love with Shena. And her Doc Martens.
Swagman: Syd's 'familiar' and side-kick in crime - a mischievous goblin, troll, shape shifter, thief, always around to make trouble and disrupt the spectacle.
Syd: A wheeling-dealing 'Ditch entrepreneur. Occasional manager of the Bar Bizarre, with
mysterious connections to the Balkan mafia.
Yasmin: His consort. Kaz's best friend. She calls herself a "Life-Style Guru"
and can always lay her hands on a lorry load of Prada