The Abbey Theatre has settled a High Court row over the rights to a remake of 'The Playboy of the Western World'.

The national theatre is to pay royalties to stage company Arambe whose founder Bisi Adigun co-wrote the script for the play with novelist Roddy Doyle.

In the updated version of JM Synge's classic play, the main character Christy Mahon is a Nigerian asylum seeker.

It was staged by the Abbey Theatre in 2007 to mark the centenary of the original production.

Claims of changes made

There was a second run in 2008/2009 but co-writer Bisi Adigun claimed 120 changes were made to the script he wrote with Roddy Doyle.

He sued the Abbey, director Jimmy Fay and Roddy Doyle for copyright infringement alleging "a distorted version" of the play had been remounted.

The High Court action settled today.

The terms of the deal are undisclosed but Mr Adigun's barrister Michael Cush, SC, read out in court an acknowledgment by the defendants that there were unauthorised alterations to the script.

It has been agreed that royalties are to be paid to Bisi Adigun and Arambe productions.