Two Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested after disrupting a performance of The Tempest starring Sigourney Weaver in London’s West End.
Alien star Weaver, 75, was escorted away by staff at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane on Monday night after two members of the climate protest group climbed onto the stage.
The two-time Golden Globe-winning actress had been sitting on a chair during the performance of the Shakespeare play in which she portrays the storm-creating magician Prospero – a role typically played by a man.
The protesters launched a confetti cannon and a voice called out: “We’ll have to stop the show, ladies and gentlemen, sorry.”
A video posted online by the climate protest group shows the activists, carrying a sign reading “over 1.5 degrees is a global shipwreck”, as they are met with boos and a few cheers from the audience.
The sign was a reference to the recent announcement that 2024 had been the first full year when the average temperature exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
The Metropolitan Police said a 42-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass after attending a central London police station on Tuesday and that they remained in custody.
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One of the protesters, Hayley Walsh, 42, a lecturer from Nottingham, said she was “scared” for her three children.
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“I can’t sleepwalk them into a future of food shortages, life-threatening storms and wars for resources,” she said in a statement released by the group.
“Years of writing to MPs, going on marches and teaching my students to be more sustainable hasn’t seen the urgent change needed.”
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The other activist, Richard Weir, a 60-year-old mechanical engineer from North Tyneside, added: “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.”
It is the latest in a string of stunts carried out by Just Stop Oil protesters, including the recent spray-painting of Charles Darwin’s grave in Westminster.
