Eco-activists storm West End stage to disrupt Sigourney Weaver as Alien star performs Shakespeare

27 January 2025, 22:14

Environmental activists

Mother of three Hayley Walsh and mechanical engineer Richard Weir can be seen walking on stage where Alien star Weaver, 75, is performing, in a video shared to social media by Just Stop Oil, the climate protest group.

Carrying a sign that reads "over 1.5 degrees is a global shipwreck", the pair launch a confetti cannon while a voice says "we'll have to stop the show ladies and gentlemen, sorry".

Weaver, who had been sitting on a chair, was escorted off stage at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane on Monday, while the two protesters faced boos and a few cheers from the audience.

The sign was a reference to the recent announcement that 2024 had been the warmest on record globally and the first full year when the average temperature exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Read more: Eco activists Just Stop Oil deface Charles Darwin’s grave in Westminster Abbey in latest fossil fuel protest

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Ms 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."

Mr 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."

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.

The production opened in December and will run until February 1.

The Metropolitan Police and the Theatre Royal Drury Lane have been approached for comment.