AWG Statement on behalf of Lachlan Philpott
12 July, 2013
The Australian Writers’ Guild would like to issue the following public statement on behalf of its member Lachlan Philpott.
Lachlan would like to acknowledge the people who bravely shared their stories and the actors and creative artists who contributed to the current Perth Theatre Company production Alienation in good faith.
However, the current production, while bearing the same name as Lachlan’s script Alienation, is based on a script that had been very significantly altered, to the extent that it does not represent the script of which he is the author.
Therefore, in discussions with the Perth Theatre Company, Lachlan respectfully asked for his name to be removed as the author of this production, and Perth Theatre Company agreed to this. This was done in order to maintain his integrity as the author of the original script and to enable the production to proceed.
The decision was not taken lightly. It was not done as a result of the type of differences in artistic vision and interpretation that are part of the usual and constructive interplay between artists. That type of creative rub is something Lachlan continues to wholeheartedly embrace.
On this occasion the copyrighted script on which the production was to be based, was altered to such an extent that Lachlan could not genuinely be called the author of it.
Lachlan retains the authorship of his script Alienation and looks forward to seeing it realised on stage in the future.
-ENDS-
AWG President Jan Sardi is available to speak about the more general issues around moral rights, writing and collaboration, integrity of authorship, etc.
Please contact sarah@awg.com.au with any interview requests.
