From a legal standpoint, absolutely do not write her. My very basic understanding of how these things work is that it would be incumbent upon her to be aware of the play, recognize herself in it, be able to prove that the person in the play could only be her, that other people watching the play would come to the same conclusion, and that you could not have drawn the life details that you drew from publicly available sources. If you tell her in advance that it's her, you've made her case for her.
Now, from a moral or ethical standpoint, there's a whole different conversation to be had about how writers use other people's lives in their work and whether writers should include those people in their process and perhaps get their permission... but that's wholly separate from your original question. |
