Climate disobedience movement activists “occupied” Trafalgar Square ahead of the screening of a Royal Opera House show funded by the oil giant.
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare's celebrated work, became Oileo and Fueliet. But what does one of the most famous tragedies of all time have to do with oil? On 11 June, activists from Extinction Rebellion (XR), the climate disobedience movement founded in London in 2018, staged a mass protest at Trafalgar Square, ahead of the open-air screening of the ballet inspired by Romeo and Juliet performed by the Royal Ballet of the Royal Opera House. The reason for the protest is that the event is sponsored by BP, the British oil giant.
XR has called on the Royal Opera House, one of the most prestigious opera houses in the world, to give up BP's sponsorship. "BP seeks to improve its image by sponsoring culture – reads the environmental organisation's statement – and research has shown that this approach works."
The aim of the protest, which took place before the show without disrupting its proceedings out of respect for the audience and the artists, is to highlight the United Kingdom's inconsistency. The British government was indeed the first in the world to declare a climate emergency, and yet, in the very heart of the English capital, enormous visibility is being given to a company held responsible for the environmental devastation afflicting the planet — a company that, activists argue, wants to use art and culture to clean up its image.
During the protest, demonstrators not only displayed banners and read out a statement, but also staged their own version of Shakespeare's tragedy — Oileo and Fueliet — namely the greatest tragedy in the world. Hundreds of people demonstrated peacefully, giving rise to what appears to be the largest mass protest against oil company sponsorship ever seen. Many activists were dressed in red, to symbolise the bloodshed and environmental destruction caused by BP.
According to XR, the British oil company, responsible for 1.5 per cent of global emissions from 1988 to the present day and which plans to invest 70 billion dollars in oil exploration over the next ten years, seeks to gain social legitimacy through cultural sponsorship. "Our cultural institutions can no longer continue to offer visibility to those organisations that are causing devastation to our planet," reads the letter XR sent to the trustees of the Royal Opera House. The United Kingdom, like the rest of the planet, is gravely threatened by the effects of climate change; if there is to be any chance of keeping the rise in global temperatures below two degrees, it is necessary, XR stresses, "to keep 80 per cent of known oil reserves in the ground. It is time for the Royal Opera House to join those who are trying to protect our planet for this and future generations, rather than those who are destroying it for profit."