The Sydney festival has offered refunds to audience members who reportedly walked out of several performances of a show last week, after complaints from the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies.
The peak Jewish representative body in NSW posted a “community warning” on its Facebook page on Friday, telling followers the festival production of Air Time, staged by the cross-discipline performance company Branch Nebula at Chippendale’s Seymour Centre, contained “deeply offensive antisemitic messages” with its inclusion of the contested “river to the sea” chant.
The board accused Branch Nebula of inciting violence by platforming a “masked artist” who recited the chant, which it characterised as calling “for the extermination of the Jewish people”, after which “numerous attendees … reported being forced to walk out with their children”.
The phrase “from the river to the sea” is politically charged and long contested – with defenders, including former Labor senator Fatima Payman, rejecting the assertion that it is antisemitic and arguing it expresses the “desire for Palestinians to live in their homeland as free and equal citizens”.
In the post, the board wrote that it was contacting the festival to demand refunds for those who had walked out of the show.
A spokesperson for the festival on Monday said it had refunded 19 ticket holders, covering an unspecified number of people.
The chair of Branch Nebula, John Baylis, told Guardian Australia a pre-recorded audio statement had been broadcast after the welcome to county before each of the company’s five performances. The message had been recorded by a cast member whose parents are Palestinian.
“As we make art and perform for you today, Palestinian people are experiencing a genocide implemented by Israel as well as the sustained destruction of Palestinian culture, people and land,” the statement said.
“We call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and we stand in solidarity with all oppressed people around the world … From the river to the sea, always was and always will be.”
The message also informed the audience they could seek further information by scanning QR codes installed in the theatre foyer, which linked users to the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network.
Baylis said the message had the prior approval of the company’s management and fellow cast members.
“There were objections from opening night, but probably only about five, six or seven walkouts,” he said.
The festival’s executive director, Christopher Tooher, and its chair, Kate Dundas, contacted Branch Nebula after its opening night on Tuesday requesting that the company cease broadcasting the message.
The company refused to comply.
“We accept audience members’ right to disagree, but we stand by our artists’ right to express their views,” Branch Nebula said in a prepared statement shared with Guardian Australia.
“By accommodating the complaints and demands of a few, we would exclude people in our community and our team. We prioritise the wellbeing of our cast and the wide circle of our community who are sympathetic to oppressed people everywhere.”
The festival responded by issuing a content warning to ticket holders for the remaining performances, stating the performance would contain “sensitive and complex political issues, including the ongoing conflict in Gaza” and reflected the personal views of the artists.
On Monday, the festival said in a statement it had requested Branch Nebula to withdraw or modify the pre-recorded message “to address audience unease”.
“The content of Air Time reflected the views of the independent artists and company and not the Sydney festival as an organisation,” the statement said.
“We do not endorse messaging that could be interpreted as harmful or exclusionary, particularly with a family focused performance.”
The statement said Branch Nebula had not notified the festival of its intention to include a statement about the Gaza conflict before the opening night.
Sydney festival’s 2024 event received $7.9m in state and local government funding. The state’s arts minister, John Graham, told the Sunday Telegraph the government was not responsible for its programming.
“While artistic freedom of expression is important that cannot be at the cost of social cohesion or making some people in our community feel singled out, unsafe or threatened,” he is quoted in the newspaper.
The Guardian sought comment from the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies.
