Playwright accused of plagiarism
English playwright Byrony Lavery has been accused of plagiarising passages from a criminal psychiatrist and a magazine writer in her Tony Award-nominated play about a serial killer and his psychiatrist.
Dr Dorothy Otnow Lewis and Malcolm Gladwell of The New Yorker said they had found at least 12 instances of plagiarism in “Frozen,” which earned a Tony nomination for best play this year.
Biographical and thematic details had also been taken from a New Yorker profile Gladwell wrote about Lewis in 1997 and from Lewis’ 1998 book “Guilty by Reason of Insanity,” the two charged.
Lewis told The New York Times that she had been “staggered” on discovering the similarities about two months ago, when she participated in an audience discussion of the play.
“I felt I’d been robbed,” Lewis said. “She’d lifted my life.”
One passage in Gladwell’s article, quoting Lewis, is included almost verbatim in Lavery’s play, the Times reported. It reads, in part: “I just don’t believe people are born evil. To my mind that is mindless. Forensic psychiatrists tend to buy into the notion of evil. I felt that’s no explanation.”
For the play’s character Agnetha, a criminal psychologist, Lewis charged Lavery used several biographical details from ”Guilty by Reason of Insanity.”
Chris Boneau, a spokesman for MCC Theater, which produced ”Frozen,” said Lavery was not available for comment.
“Attorneys have been engaged, the discussions are amicable, and we expect a resolution,” he said in a statement.
Lewis has asked for a public announcement of the alleged plagiarism, credit in advertisements for the play and a monetary settlement including a portion of film or television revenues.
“Frozen” opened in New York last March at off-Broadway’s East 13th Street Theatre. It transferred to Broadway in May and closed in August.
It lost the best play Tony to “I Am My Own Wife.”
