PLAGIARISM!

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 720, 20 July 1929, Page 24

PLAGIARISM !

Charge Against Author of Strange Interlude

A charge 0: plagiarism—that thundercloud which hangs over the! heads of all successful dramatists—f has burst upon Eugene O‘Neill, the: most famous American playwright. A suit claiming £350,000 was filed against him in the US. District Court in New York on behalf of Miss George ‘ Lewys, an author and poet, aged 31, living in that city. Her claim is that “Strange Interlude,” O'Neill’s most successful play, is taken directly, even to the famous asides, from a play she wrote entitled; “The Temple of Pallas Athenae.” It was published in 1924 at £4 a copy. and circulated among a limited number of people, including authors and publishers. Miss Lewys states that she can prove that O’Neill bought a copy some time before his own play was produced last year, and that she took a copy to the Theatre Guild. which produced “Strange Interlude.” but was informed that the guild could not undertake a play at that time. O’Neill’s play won the 1928 Pulitzer ‘dramatic prize, largely because of its apparent startling originality. Miss Lewys avers that she wrote her play when she was 19. being even then a deep student of psychology. 1 The play uses asides in the middle of the dialogue to express the thoughts 'of characters. It deals with the :spiritual complications of a. Woman iwhose fiance was 'killed in the war. } O’Neill, who has been tramp, sailor, land bar—tender, is best known in LBritain by “Anna Christie.” Sevl era! of his plays have been banned.

i . “Smoke Persian,” the new play at Ithe Everyman Theatre, Hampstead. ‘N.W., by Kitty Willoughby. is billed as “a fantastic farce,” says a London critic. After seeing “Smoked Glasses” on Monday and "Smoke Persian” on Tuesday, I shall be very chary of all plays dealing with smoke. Mr. F. Anstey once wrote a most amusing farce called “The Brass Bottle.” The present tale of a reincarnated Persian princess is full of sad reminiscences of that play and still more of a farce called “The Dust‘ of Egypt," which Sir Gerald du Maurier did long ago at Wyndham’s. But in the year 1929, when the theatre is supposed to be fighting the talking films, how can such things be?