Idris Elba Responds to Claims Two Female Writers Were Pushed Off His Play 'Tree'

Idris Elba is all smiles as he steps outside ahead of the press night performance of his play Tree held during the Manchester International Festival at Upper Campfield Market Hall on Thursday afternoon (July 4) in Manchester, England.

Two female writers have recently spoken out to claim they were removed, without credit, from the British theater production being put on by Idris and director-playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah in a blog post entitled, “Tree. A story of gender and power in theatre.”

Idris has taken to Twitter to refute the writers’ – Tori Allen-Martin and Sarah Henley – claims, stating the situation was “frustrating.”

“We wanted to offer an opportunity to support these new writers while creating a piece of work and scale and to a director’s vision,” Idris said. “The outcome is an accusation of plagiarism and discrimination.”

“As new ambitions started to be proposed as the jumping off point for development, Tori & Sarah decided they didn’t want to pursue the early thoughts and declined to work any further on the project,” Idris Elba continued. “We were left without any writers and had to start work very quickly, which is our contractual right as beholder of the original idea, the album.”