“We became completely disposable because we’re not famous or important enough”
A dispute surrounding Idris Elba’s play Tree has arisen after two writers claimed they faced “intimidation and disrespect” while working on the project.
The play, which was co-created by the Luther star and Kwame Kwei-Armah, premiered at Manchester International Festival and is being shown at the event until July 13.
Writers Tori Allen-Martin and Sarah Henley have said that they worked on Tree for four years, but received no credit for their contributions and experienced being “pushed off”.
As the BBC reports, Tree‘s producers responded by saying the play “needed to go in a very different direction with a new writer attached”. Elba’s production company Green Door Pictures – along with MIF and London’s Young Vic theatre – did, however, acknowledge the pair were “involved in exploring ideas” earlier in the creative process.
Idris Elba
They added they were “grateful” to the writers but that their vision for the play wasn’t “artistically viable”.
It’s said that Kwei-Armah, who serves as the Young Vic’s artistic director, ultimately helmed the script. “Tree is a new work, based on a concept by Idris Elba with an original script by Kwame Kwei-Armah,” they explained.
Yesterday (July 2), a blog post from the two writers detailed how Allen-Martin had been asked to come up with an idea for a show by Elba himself. They then began research, wrote a script and came up with the show’s name.
Allen-Martin and Henley claim that Kwei-Armah soon took over, with the two being dismissed and “threatened… with legal action if we spoke up”.
“There is no way it’s a ‘different project’, no matter how much it’s changed,” they wrote in the post. “And the reluctance to take any accountability for the fact that until we fought it, the majority of the revised synopsis was our work, just without our names on it, is at best sad and at worst, disgusting.”
The blog goes on to claim that Kwei-Armah “refused to engage” with them, which they said is “devastating proof of the way doors are shut on women, and on the underdogs”.
This is my personal response to the allegations made by Tori n Sarah. There will be an official statement but didn’t want anyone to think that I would hide behind that. would be happy and in fact encourage a public discussion with Tori n Sarah n myself at a venue of their choice pic.twitter.com/4rDTyc53UP
— Kwame Kwei-Armah (@kwamekweiarmah) July 2, 2019
“We became completely disposable because we’re not famous or important enough,” the pair added. “We were expected to shut up, lie down, and take it.”
Taking to Twitter, Kwei-Armah has now responded, while claiming that he had “requested several times to have had this conversation face to face”. See that full statement above.
He went on to say that he understood “the pain of being ‘released’ from a project”.
The Young Vic also issued a statement, which read: “Tree is a new work, based on a concept by Idris Elba with an original script by Kwame Kwei-Armah.”
An official synopsis of Tree describes the play as an “electrifying new blend of drama, music and dance [which] follows one man’s journey into the heart and soul of contemporary South Africa – with the audience at the centre of the action.”
