Frozen is a play by Bryony Lavery that tells the story of the disappearance of a 10-year-old girl, Rhona Shirley. 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. In 2019, Frozen was listed in The Independent as one of the 40 best plays ever written.
The story is set in present-day England and involves three main characters: a serial killer named Ralph Wantage, who kidnaps and murders a young girl; the murdered girl's mother, Nancy Shirley; a New Yorkpsychiatrist, Agnetha Gottmundsdottir, 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, media sources around the world reported allegations that Lavery had plagiarized significant portions of the play from a 1997 The New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell about psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis, and from Lewis' own 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 killersFred and Rosemary West. And, for the character of Agnetha, Lavery drew on the Gladwell article. "I wanted to be accurate", she told Gladwell.
Reviews
" big, brave, compassionate play about grief, revenge, forgiveness and bearing the unbearable." -- The Guardian
The TalkinBroadway reviewer of a Florida production wrote: " powerful drama... about three people living the human condition... a story that needs to continue to be told."
