Just Stop Oil protesters crash Sigourney Weaver’s Shakespeare performance in London

28 January, 2025

Sigourney Weaver

Protesters for the climate activism group Just Stop Oil climbed onto the stage at a West End production of The Tempest, interrupting star Sigourney Weaver to raise a banner protesting the government’s reaction to global warming.

Midway through a performance on Monday (January 27), Weaver and her fellow cast members were on stage at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London.

The scene saw two protesters walk on with a banner saying “Over 1.5 degrees is a global shipwreck”, a reference to the premise of The Tempest where the passengers of a ship are stranded on a magical island.

The message on the banner also alludes to the recent announcement that 2024 was the warmest on record globally, the first full year when the average temperature exceeded 1.5C above the pre-industrial average, considered by many to be the threshold to avoid climate disaster.

They then launched a confetti canon, while Weaver was led away by a member of staff and an announcement said: “We’ll have to stop the show, ladies and gents, sorry.” The crowd mostly booed and heckled the pair, although there were cheers and applause from some members of the audience.

The protesters onstage were identified as Hayley Walsh, a lecturer and mother of three from Nottingham; as well as Richard Weir, a mechanical engineer from Tynemouth. Both gave statements via a press release from Just Stop Oil following the event.

In the release, Walsh said: “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 followed by saying: “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.”

Today (January 28), the Metropolitan Police confirmed said a 42-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man had been arrested and were being held in custody on suspicion of aggravated trespass. Alien star Weaver appears in the play until February 1.

Sigourney Weaver
The cast of ‘The Tempest’ (credit: Dave Benett/Getty Images)

The demonstration is the latest in a range of protests by the organisation, who have disrupted Premier League football matches, Formula One races, and the 2022 BAFTA Film Awards among others. Last year, Liam Gallagher criticised the group for protesting on Stone Henge.

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