Two people have been arrested in connection with a Just Stop Oil protest that disrupted a West End production of The Tempest starring Sigourney Weaver.
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, the Metropolitan police said.
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.”
Weaver, who had been sitting on a chair, was escorted off stage while the two protesters were met with boos and a few cheers from the audience.
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.
“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.
“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.
The Theatre Royal Drury Lane was approached for comment.
