Frozen (play)

Frozen is a play by Bryony Lavery that tells the story of the disappearance of a 10-year-old girl, Rhona. The play follows Rhona's mother and killer over the years that follow. They are linked by a doctor who is studying what causes men to commit such crimes. The themes of the play include emotional paralysis and forgiveness.

The play was first performed at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1998 and won the Best New Play Award from the Theatrical Management Association.^[1] It later made its debut at the Royal National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre on July 3, 2002.^[2]

In New York, Frozen opened in February 2004 at off-Broadway's Manhattan Class Company Theatre starring Swoosie Kurtz, Brian F. O'Byrne and Laila Robins. It transferred to Broadway in May and closed in August 2004.^[3] Frozen was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play in 2004, and earned a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play (Brian F. O'Byrne).

Plot and characters

The story is set in present-day England and involves three main characters: a serial killer named Ralph, who kidnaps and murders a young girl; the murdered girl's mother, Nancy; a New York psychiatrist, Agnetha, who travels to England to examine Ralph. The three lives slowly intersect — and the characters gradually change and become "unfrozen" as they come to terms with the idea of forgiveness.

The script begins in monologues, each person showing his or her side of the story; the audience sees each person's story intertwine as they connect with one another.

Allegations of plagiarism

In September 2004, papers around the world (including The Times, The Observer, the New York Times, and the Associated Press) reported that Lavery had allegedly plagiarized significant portions (nearly 675 words) of the play from a 1997 The New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell about psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis, and from Lewis' own 1998 book Guilty by Reason of Insanity.

Lewis claimed that Frozen was based in large part on her life and that the play lifted both themes and verbatim passages from both sources. However, after interviewing Lavery, Gladwell wrote a second New Yorker article in which he characterized Lavery’s appropriation as "permissible borrowing." Lavery, for her part, acknowledged that all three characters were drawn heavily from external sources. For the character of Ralph, she drew on the book The Murder of Childhood by Ray Wyre and Tim Tate. For the character of Nancy, she drew on an article in The Guardian by Marian Partington, whose sister Lucy had been murdered by the serial killers Fred and Rosemary West. And, for the character of Agnetha, Lavery drew on the Gladwell article. "I wanted [the play] to be accurate", she told Gladwell.^[4]

Reviews

• "[A] big, brave, compassionate play about grief, revenge, forgiveness and bearing the unbearable." -- The Guardian
• "[A] powerful drama ... about three people living the human condition... a story that needs to continue to be told. -– Talkin Broadway

Notes

References

• Malcolm Gladwell, "Damaged," February 24, 1997, The New Yorker
• Tony-nominated playwright Bryony Lavery accused of plagiarism, Associated Press, September 25, 2004
• Jesse McKinley, Playwright Created a Psychiatrist By Plagiarizing One, Accusers Say, New York Times, September 25, 2004, Page B-1
• Malcolm Gladwell, Something Borrowed: Should a charge of plagiarism ruin your life?, The New Yorker, November 22, 2004

External links

• Frozen at the Internet Broadway Database
• Frozen at Theatricalia.com