Youth Letter to the Royal Shakespeare Company

Dear Royal Shakespeare Company,

We are school students and young people who have been organising school strikes against climate change. We are doing this because our government and large corporations are not taking sufficient action on climate change, and this is putting our futures in serious danger. So far, millions of young people have taken action around the world, with 4 million people attending the last school strike. In the UK, the YouthStrike4Climate movement has mobilised thousands of us to fight for our future. We are all scared about the dire state of our planet and what this will mean for our future, and the future of our children.

We are writing to you because your discounted £5 tickets for 16-25 year olds are sponsored by the giant oil company, BP. This means that if we, as young people, wish to see an affordable play at your theatre we have to help to promote a company that is actively destroying our futures by wrecking the climate.

These sponsorship deals allow BP to pretend that it cares about young people by giving them “the chance to be inspired by amazing live performances and kindle a lifelong love of theatre”. In reality, BP is jeopardising the futures of these young people they apparently care so much about, by continuing to extract huge quantities of oil and gas, and actively lobbying against the climate change policies that we school strikers are pushing so hard for. BP is top of the list of companies blocking climate action in Europe, and spend tens of millions of pounds every year on lobbying around the world. This is despite its advertisement campaigns claiming to be playing an “active role” in reducing emissions and to be “working harder than ever to create cleaner, greener, smarter energy.” It is clear these are empty statements, as 97% of BP’s capital investment remains in oil and gas, and they plan on spending £41 billion on exploring for new oil in the next decade. As an organisation that appears to care about climate breakdown, it simply makes no sense for you at the Royal Shakespeare Company to be accepting sponsorship from a company that is the third biggest corporate source of greenhouse gases in history.

Furthermore, BP’s human rights record is an embarrassment. Their close relationship with repressive governments and regimes such as Egypt, Mexico and Russia has led to horrendous human rights violations. BP’s funding of the Indonesian government help them to buy guns which are used for the genocide of the people of West Papua, and they have been accused of being complicit in the kidnapping and torture of Colombian trade unionist Gilberto Torres. It is sickening that the works of Shakespeare are being associated with these events. It has been inspiring to see Mark Rylance acting on his principles and making a stand against this issue in his recent letter.

The Royal Shakespeare Company needs young people far more than it needs BP, with children and young people making up the bulk of the audiences of your hit show “Matilda the Musical”, which has made you a financial surplus of millions. In comparison, BP provides less than 0.5% of the RSC’s income, and yet is allowed to put its logo on tickets. We are the audiences of the future and we will not support theatre that accepts sponsorship from a company that is continuing to extract fossil fuels whilst our earth burns. We wish that the RSC would act on the ideas that they present in Matilda and not give in to the powerful oppressor. As said by Matilda herself: “If it’s not right, you’ve got to put it right!”

You can be sure that if you continue to accept funding from BP we will come to Stratford-Upon-Avon, not to see a show, but to make a scene ourselves. Unless you drop BP, we pledge to do the following:

– Not go to RSC plays

– Encourage our friends and families not to go to RSC plays

– Lobby our schools to not run school trips to the RSC, and to instead support other theatre companies that put on Shakespeare performances without fossil fuel branding.

– Team up with organisations that are already challenging BP sponsorship of arts and culture, such as BP or not BP? and Culture Unstained, to raise further awareness of the issue.

BP’s influence is nothing but a stain on the RSC. So we therefore ask that you say “out damned logo” and remove their sponsorship.

We would like to meet with the Directors of the RSC, Gregory Doran, Catherine Mallyon and Erica Whyman as soon as possible to make our concerns clear in person and hear your response. Please let us know when you could do this.

Kind regards,

The youth.

 

Name	Age	Town/School	Role
EJ Fawcett	17	Abingdon	School strike organiser
Meg Goodwin	24	Biggar	Striker and Strike Supporter
Aaron Smith	17	Birmingham	Striker
Mary-Jane Farrell	21	Brighton	Youth Strike organiser
Annapurna Marley	18	Brighton	Youth Strike organiser
Aidan Evans-Jesra	21	Brighton	Youth Strike organiser
Carla Perry Bonillo	17	Brighton	Youth Strike organiser
Roseanne Steffen	22	Brighton	Youth Strike organiser
Peter Johnson	21	Brighton	Strike supporter
Uma	14	Brighton
Junayd Ul Islam	16	Cambridge	Youth Striker
Beth Irving	17	Cardiff	Youth Striker
Luke Evans	25	Cornwall	Strike Supporter
Joe Brindle	17	Devizes	Striker
Phoebe Rossiter	17	Farnborough	Striker
Ishtara Veen	23	Glastonbury	Musician, artist and climate activist
Murray	15	Huddersfield	Youth Striker
Kate Govan	16	Huddersfield	Youth Striker
Thomas Fish	17	Lancaster	Striker
Rohan	14	London	Striker
Cloe Hotham	20	London	Striker
Chad	17	London, BRIT School	Striker
Eden	19	London, Central School of Speech & Drama	Striker
Elisha Fern	21	London, Central School of Speech & Drama	Strike supporter
Tara Goodfellow	21	London	Strike supporter
Al Coffey	22	London	Strike supporter
Connor Newson	24	London, Goldsmiths	XR Universities
Owen Rowbotham	18	Manchester	Youth Striker
Alice	16	Newbury	Striker
Ella Mann	18	Oxford	School strike organiser
Bella Godden Melendez	20	Oxford	Striker
Xanthe	15	Oxford	School Strike Organiser
Sasha Jeffery	18	Oxford	Striker
Arune Hopestone	18	Oxford	Striker
Laura Lock	17	Oxford	Striker
Freya	15	Oxford	School strike organiser
Clare Harrison	21	Oxford/London	Youth striker
Catalina Chavez	17	Stratford-upon-Avon	Striker
Chloe Hawryluk	16	Stratford-upon-Avon	School Strike Organiser
Elle	15	Stratford-upon-Avon	Striker
Lilya Turner Hurd	17	Stratford-upon-Avon	Striker
Mary	15	Surrey	Striker
Hannah Lindley	18	York	Strike Supporter
Stephanie Potter	24	York	Strike Supporter

[1] https://www.bp.com/en_gb/united-kingdom/home/community/connecting-through-arts-and-culture/bp-and-the-royal-shakespeare-company.html

Please note: this letter was not started by, nor coordinated by the UK Student Climate Network.