Activists from “Just Stop Oil” were booed by the audience after they stormed a stage in England, interrupting a Shakespeare play to warn about global warming.
Activists from “Just Stop Oil” were arrested after they disrupted a performance on Monday of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” featuring actress Sigourney Weaver.
Environmentalist activists climbed onto the stage at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, launching a confetti cannon as a voice declared, “We’ll have to stop the show, ladies and gents, sorry.” Members of the audience booed the activists as a member of the theater’s staff escorted Weaver off the stage.
The activists carried an orange banner warning “Over 1.5 degrees is a global shipwreck,” a likely nod to the play itself, where a shipwreck leaves the characters stranded on an island.
The organization touted the spectacle on social media, noting that “2 Just Stop Oil supporters climbed onto the stage, stopping a performance starring legendary actor Sigourney Weaver.” It then echoed the phrase, “1.5 degrees is a global shipwreck.”
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According to the BBC, “police said a 42-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man had been arrested. The Metropolitan Police said the pair were being held in custody on suspicion of aggravated trespass.”
Just Stop Oil’s press release regarding the incident credited activist Hayley Walsh for the stunt, noting she is a “lecturer and mum of three from Nottingham.”
Walsh was quoted declaring, “I am scared for my children, I can’t sleepwalk them into a future of food shortages, life-threatening storms and wars for resources. Years of writing to MPs, going on marches and teaching my students to be more sustainable, hasn’t seen the urgent change needed.”
She added further, “1.5 degrees is a global shipwreck we can’t ignore. Wildfires in California, deadly floods in Valencia and hundreds of thousands without power in the UK this weekend. This isn’t a distant, future problem. We need a global treaty to stop fossil fuel burning and a global emergency response.”
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She concluded her statement by saying, “Unless we come together and demand a move away from fossil fuels by 2030, we will go the same way as manufacturing in the UK. Just Stop Oil be taking action outside parliament this April. Join us.”
The organization warned that more such protests are coming.
“Non-violent civil resistance works,” the organization said. “Just Stop Oil will once again be stepping into action this April to demand that governments commit to an international treaty to phase out the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal burning by 2030.”
In recent years, activists from Just Stop Oil have targeted historic and artistic works, using the spectacle to advocate for their cause.
