Skip to content
Oil Change International | Data Driven, People Powered. Oil Change International | Data Driven, People Powered.
  • About
    • Our Work
    • Values
    • Team
    • Jobs at OCI
    • Ways to Give
  • Program Areas
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • North Sea
    • United States
    • Global Industry
    • Global Public Finance
    • Global Policy
  • Blog
  • Press Releases
  • Publications
Donate
  • Get Updates
    • Share on Bluesky Share on Bluesky Bluesky (opens in a new window)
    • Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Twitter (opens in a new window)
    • Share on Instagram Share on Instagram Instagram (opens in a new window)
    • Share on LinkedIn Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn (opens in a new window)
    • Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Facebook (opens in a new window)
Donate
  • About
    • Our Work
    • Values
    • Team
    • Jobs at OCI
    • Ways to Give
  • Program Areas
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • North Sea
    • United States
    • Global Industry
    • Global Public Finance
    • Global Policy
  • Blog
  • Press Releases
  • Publications
    • Get Updates
    • Share on Bluesky Bluesky
    • Share on Twitter Twitter
    • Share on Instagram Instagram
    • Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn
    • Share on Facebook Facebook
Go to OCI Homepage
Current Affairs
Published: April 25, 2012

BP or not BP?

  • Latest from OCI
  • Blogs listing
  • BP or not BP?
    • Blog Post BP Current Affairs Deepwater Horizon Featured greenwashing
Andy Rowell

When not blogging for OCI, Andy is a freelance writer and journalist specializing in environmental issues.

[email protected]

As part of the build-up to the Olympics, Britain is hosting the World Shakespeare Festival, that kicked off on Monday which would have been the Bard’s 448th birthday.

The Festival is being billed as the biggest ever festival to celebrate his work: production companies from around the world will perform a total of 70 plays, starting with a Maori version of Troilus and Cressida. Other countries represented include South Sudan, South Africa, Belarus and Afghanistan. Nearly 180,000 tickets have already been sold.

Using Shakespeare to bring a cultural dimension to Britain’s sporting extravaganza has been applauded by the critics as widening the appeal of the Games.

However, once again Big Oil has sullied the event through sponsorship. BP, which is also sponsoring the Olympics, is a major sponsor.

In response, therefore, activists are determined that BP’s sponsorship of such a landmark cultural event does not go unchallenged and so they have formed the “Reclaim Shakespeare Company.”

On Monday, just before the start of the Tempest, a group of activists took unexpectedly to the stage in Stratford-upon-Avon. The actors performed a short protest drawing on The Tempest and other Shakespearean works, to challenge the Royal Shakespeare Company over its decision to accept sponsorship from BP.

They spoke for roughly two minutes about BP’s attempts to “distract attention” away from their environmental record – including the Deepwater Horizon disaster – through cultural sponsorship.

The lead protester soliloquised: “What country, friends, is this? Where the words of our most prized poet / Can be bought to beautify a patron / So unnatural as British Petroleum? / They, who have incensed the seas and shores / From a dark deepwater horizon.”

The performance concluded with the words “Let us break their staff that would bewitch us! / Out damned logo!”. On saying this, the performer ripped the BP logo from his theatre programme.

The audience were then invited to follow the actors’ lead by tearing the BP logo from their theatre programme when they exited the theatre.

“Several followed our lead,” said Richard Howlett one of the protesters from the Reclaim Shakespeare Company “and lots of people were clapping and cheering at the end”.

The stunt marked the public launch of the Reclaim Shakespeare Company’s website and manifesto, entitled “BP or not BP?”

It coincided with the publication of a letter in the Guardian newspaper from a group of theatre and arts professionals, who argued that “what should be an unabashed celebration of Shakespeare’s continued relevance to our world has been sullied by the fact that the festival is sponsored by BP.”

The letter continued: “While the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill continues to devastate ecosystems and communities, and the highly polluting extraction of tar sands oil brings us rapidly closer to the point of no return from climate change, we feel that BP has no place in arts sponsorship.”

In response, the Royal Shakespeare Company defended its decision to take BP’s money, saying the oil giant “has been a great supporter of the arts for many years and already works with some of the UK’s leading cultural organisations.”

However,  Richard Howlett responded: “The RSC have chosen to put BP’s money in their purse. Yet he’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf. BP is doing everything in its power to let not the public see its deep and dark desires – fossil fuel expansion and ecological devastation. BP is the harlot’s cheek, beautied with sponsoring art. It is the greenwash monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on, and the RSC have made themselves complicit in its crimes.”

For more information go here, or check the Facebook page out.

Oil Change International | Data Driven, People Powered.
Donate Get Updates
Back to the top
  • Keep in touch

  • Oil Change International
    714 G St. SE, #202
    Washington, DC 20003
    United States

    +1.202.518.9029

    [email protected]

    • Share on Bluesky Bluesky (opens in a new window)
    • Share on Twitter Twitter (opens in a new window)
    • Share on Instagram Instagram (opens in a new window)
    • Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn (opens in a new window)
    • Share on Facebook Facebook (opens in a new window)
  • Quick links

  • About OCI
  • Our Values
  • Jobs at OCI
  • Ways to Give
  • Media Centre

  • Publications
  • Press
  • Associated websites

  • Big Oil Reality Check
  • Energy Finance Database
  • Permian Climate Bomb
  • Site map
  • Privacy policy

Copyright © 2025 Oil Change International. Web design by Fat Beehive