Two Just Stop Oil activists have been charged after they burst onto a stage in the West End and disrupted a performance featuring Alien and Avatar actress Sigourney Weaver.
The protesters climbed onto the stage at Theatre Royal on Dury Lane, stalling the performance of The Tempest at around 8pm on Monday evening.
Richard Weir, 60, and Hayley Walsh, 42, were charged with aggravated trespass on Tuesday and they are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on February 25.
Bafta-award-winning actress Weaver plays the storm-creating magician Prospero in the new staging of the Shakespeare classic, in a role typically played by a man.
🚨 BREAKING: THE TEMPEST WEST END PERFORMANCE DISRUPTED
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) January 27, 2025
🎭 2 Just Stop Oil supporters climbed onto the stage, stopping a performance starring legendary actor Sigourney Weaver.
🖋️ 1.5 degrees is a global shipwreck. Sign up for action this April: https://t.co/guLYY5sk5C
Video… pic.twitter.com/2BIxCVT4lO
The production opened in December and will run until February 1.
Following the protest Ms Walsh, who works as a lecturer, 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."
The mother of three added: "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."
Mr Weir 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. Just Stop Oil be taking action outside parliament this April."
