Abbey Theatre settles Playboy row over script
The Abbey Theatre has settled a High Court row over the rights to a remake of 'The Playboy of the Western World'.
The national theatre is to pay royalties to stage company Arambe, whose founder Bisi Adigun co-wrote the script for the play with novelist Roddy Doyle.
In the updated version of 'The Playboy of the Western World', the main character Christy Mahon is a Nigerian asylum seeker.
It was staged by the Abbey Theatre in 2007 to mark the centenary of the first production of Synge's classic play.
It had a second run the following year and in 2009 but co-writer Bisi Adigun claimed 120 changes were made to the script he wrote with Roddy Doyle.
He sued the Abbey, director Jimmy Fay and Roddy Doyle for copyright infringment alleging "a distorted version" of the play had been remounted.
The action has settled. The terms of the deal are undisclosed but the High Court has heard the defendents have acknowledged there were unauthorised alterations to the script and it is agreed royalties are to be paid to Bisi Adigun and Arambe productions.
