David Henry Hwang Playwright Slashed

‘M. Butterfly’ playwright slashed in neck near Brooklyn home - A Tony award winning playwright was slashed in the neck in an apparently random attack near his Brooklyn home, police said Wednesday.

David Henry Hwang, who brought home the trophy for his 1988 play “M. Butterfly,” was walking on South Oxford Ave. near Lafayette Ave. in Fort Greene when an unknown attacker slashed him from behind around 8:50 p.m. on Sunday, police said.

The 57-year-old writer told police he felt pain then noticed he was bleeding before walking to Brooklyn Hospital Center. He was treated and released at a hospital.

“Thanks to the excellent work of the doctors at Brooklyn Hospital and Mt. Sinai, I'm now home and expected to make a full recovery,” Hwang, who won a Tony for his 1988 play “M. Butterfly,” told the News.

The attacker was at large.

A woman who answered the door at Hwang’s home on Wednesday night declined to comment, but said the prolific scribe is “doing fine.”

Hwang could be seen behind her wearing a bandage that stretched around his neck.

Currently a professor at Columbia University, Hwang’s works have predominantly explored the themes related to his Asian-American heritage.

His 2011 work Chinglish was written in both English and Mandarin with accompanying subtitles.

The Broadway aficionado’s most famous piece, “M. Butterfly,” for which he was also nominated for a Pulitzer, told the true story of French diplomat who had an affair with a woman who sang in the Beijing Opera.

The protagonist later discovers the singer is actually a Chinese spy — and a man.