NEW YORK - Tony award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang was slashed in the neck in an apparently random attack near his Brooklyn home, according to reports in the US.
Hwang, who wrote the 1988 hit play M. Butterfly, was walking on S. Oxford Avenue near Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene at around 8.50pm on Sunday (Nov 29) when an unknown attacker slashed his neck from behind, reported the New York Daily News.
The 57-year-old told police he felt pain and noticed he was bleeding. He then walked to a hospital, where he was treated and released.
"Thanks to the excellent work of the doctors at Brooklyn Hospital and Mount Sinai, I'm now home and expected to make a full recovery," Hwang told the Daily News.
The attacker is reportedly still at large.
According to the New York Daily News report, a woman who answered the door at Hwang's home on Wednesday (Nov 2) night said the prolific writer is "doing fine". Hwang could be seen behind her wearing a bandage that stretched around his neck.
A professor at Columbia University, Hwang's works explore themes related to his Asian-American heritage.
Mr Gaurav Kripalani, artistic director of Singapore Repertory Theatre, which has staged Hwang's M. Butterfly here, was shocked to hear about the incident when informed of it by The Straits Times.
"I'm relieved to hear that he's recovering, and I wish him all the best," he added.
