Writers say theywere erased from Elba project
It should have been a moment of celebration for Tori Allen-Martin and Sarah Henley, two British playwrights. On Thursday, “Tree,” a play they worked on for several years in collaboration with actor Idris Elba, was set to
have its world premiere at the Manchester International Festival. But the playwrights said they would not be at the premiere. In separate telephone interviews, they said their role in the play’s development had been erased, and their work was not being properly acknowledged. Elba says the playwrights withdrew from the project and that the show evolved somuch that it is nowa different work. Allen-Martin and Henley said they have spent months wrangling with the show’s producers and their lawyers over what they see as proper credit for their work. “This whole process has been terribly upsetting, and we’ve felt terrified about speaking out,” the pair wrote in a blog post published Tuesday on Medium. On Thursday, Elba responded with a statement on Twitter. Allen-Martin and Henley stepped back voluntarily from the production after they were told it needed to go in a new direction, Elba said. The flap has gripped Britain’s theater world, where open disputes about authorship and attribution are rare. But an editorial in The Stage, an industry newspaper, said that “putting aside the precise details of this case, aspects of the pair’s narrative will appear depressingly familiar.” Bryony Kimmings, a performer and writer, said in a telephone interview that she had never been removed from a project, but she knew other writers who had. They would normally get a credit, such as saying a work was “based on an original story” by them, and a fee or royalty payment anyway, she said. There was a culture of “hero worship” in Britain’s theaters, she said, and many were reluctant to acknowledge projects were collaborations and give recognition to everyone involved.