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The Royal Shakespeare Company is to end its sponsorship deal with BP after growing opposition to big oil’s involvement with the UK’s leading theatre company.
The RSC announced on Wednesday that after months of deliberations and a vociferous campaign from artists, the public and environmentalists, it had decided to end its eight-year relationship.
In a joint statement, Gregory Doran, the RSC’s artistic director, and Catherine Mallyon, its executive director, said there had been a “careful and often difficult debate” internally.
It added: “Amidst the climate emergency, which we recognise, young people are now saying clearly to us that the BP sponsorship is putting a barrier between them and their wish to engage with the RSC. We cannot ignore that message.”
The sponsorship deal will end at the end of this year – more than two years before it was due to expire.
There has been growing criticism of RSC’s sponsorship deal in the past year. In June the Guardian revealed that Mark Rylance, who had been an associate artist with the RSC for 30 years, was resigning from his position, arguing BP’s sponsorship deal allowed the company to “obscure the destructive reality of its activities”, which he said threatened the future of the planet.
Last week, young people who had taken to the streets in huge numbers across the UK in the school climate strikes, said they would boycott the RSC unless it severed its ties with big oil.
The RSC statement said “central to our organisational values, is that we listen to and respond to the views of young people.”
It added: “It is with all of this in mind that we have taken the difficult decision to conclude our partnership with BP at the end of this year. There are many fine balances and complex issues involved and the decision has not been taken lightly or swiftly.”
It thanked BP for its “generous support” since 2011. Adding that the ticket scheme that the oil giant subsidised for 16-25 year olds had allowed tens of thousands to youngsters to access world class performances.
But BP said it was “disappointed and dismayed” by the decision.
A statement by the company added: “We’re disappointed that this will bring a successful programme to a premature end. Over the past eight years our sponsorship has enabled 80,000 young people to see RSC performances at reduced rates.”
It said it was dismayed because the oil giant shares “many of the concerns that apparently contributed to the decision”.
“We recognise the world is on an unsustainable path and needs to transition rapidly to net-zero in the coming decades. The debate centres around how to deliver this whilst meeting the world’s growing energy demands.”
It added that the “increasing polarisation of debate” was unhelpful.
“This global challenge needs everyone – companies, governments and individuals – to work together to achieve a low carbon future.”
Jess Worth, co-director of the campaign group Culture Unstained, which has been spearheading the campaign against fossil fuel involvement in the arts, said it was fantastic news that RSC’s deal with BP was ending and a tribute to years of “creative opposition” from a range of groups.
She added: “The RSC has understood that a climate emergency means that business as usual can not continue, and we congratulate them for showing leadership.”
Worth urged other major cultural institutions such as the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Science Museum that still have links with fossil fuel companies to follow suit.
“There is no longer any excuse for promoting a fossil fuel company in the middle of a climate crisis.”
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