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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/28/just-stop-oil-activists-interrupt-play-tempest-sigourney-weaver-london
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| Just Stop Oil activists interrupt play starring Sigourney Weaver in London | Just Stop Oil activists interrupt play starring Sigourney Weaver in London |
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| Two protesters walk on stage to boos and some cheers during performance of The Tempest in West End | Two protesters walk on stage to boos and some cheers during performance of The Tempest in West End |
| Police are making inquiries into a Just Stop Oil protest that disrupted a West End performance of The Tempest starring Sigourney Weaver. | |
| In a video shared to social media by the climate protest group, two protesters – Hayley Walsh and Richard Weir – can be seen walking on stage where Weaver, 75, was performing at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane on Monday. | |
| Carrying a sign reading “Over 1.5 degrees is a global shipwreck”, the pair fired a confetti cannon while a voice said: “We’ll have to stop the show, ladies and gentlemen, sorry.” | Carrying a sign reading “Over 1.5 degrees is a global shipwreck”, the pair fired a confetti cannon while a voice said: “We’ll have to stop the show, ladies and gentlemen, sorry.” |
| Weaver, who had been sitting on a chair, was escorted off stage while the two protesters faced boos and a few cheers from the audience. | Weaver, who had been sitting on a chair, was escorted off stage while the two protesters faced boos and a few cheers from the audience. |
| The Metropolitan police said officers were called to the theatre and no arrests had been made. | |
| The force said: “At approximately 8pm on Monday 27 January police were called to reports of two protesters who had entered the stage area of a theatre [in] Drury Lane, WC2. Officers attended but both protesters had left the venue. No arrests; enquiries into the circumstances continue.” | |
| The message on the protesters’ banner was a reference to the recent announcement that 2024 was the warmest on record globally and the first full year when the average temperature exceeded 1.5C above preindustrial levels. | |
| Walsh, 42, a lecturer from Nottingham, said: “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. | Walsh, 42, a lecturer from Nottingham, said: “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. |
| “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.” | “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.” |
| Weir, 60, from Tynemouth, North Tyneside, said: “I started my career in the shipyards of Tyneside and I watched management inaction lead to the collapse of UK manufacturing. Now I see similar failures of leadership as politicians refuse to take action to protect us and our loved ones. | Weir, 60, from Tynemouth, North Tyneside, said: “I started my career in the shipyards of Tyneside and I watched management inaction lead to the collapse of UK manufacturing. Now I see similar failures of leadership as politicians refuse to take action to protect us and our loved ones. |
| “We’re already seeing the damage this crisis is doing to crops, homes and entire neighbourhoods. 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.” | “We’re already seeing the damage this crisis is doing to crops, homes and entire neighbourhoods. 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.” |
| Weaver plays the storm-creating magician Prospero, a role typically played by a man, in the new staging of the Shakespeare classic. The production opened in December and will run until 1 February. | Weaver plays the storm-creating magician Prospero, a role typically played by a man, in the new staging of the Shakespeare classic. The production opened in December and will run until 1 February. |
| The Theatre Royal Drury Lane was approached for comment. |