On Instagram,Greenwood,who is the son of actor and STC foundation director Hugo Weaving,shared a video of the actors on stage which had the caption “It warmed my heart to see these beauties at the opening of ‘The Seagull’ wearing traditional keffiyeh in protest against the genocide in Gaza and ongoing occupation of Palestine”.
Li reshared the same post and followed up with a quote from singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone:“An artist’s duty,as far as I’m concerned,is to reflect the times.”
On Monday,the STC apologised for “any distress caused” by the actors’ actions. STC chief executive Anne Dunn told this masthead that the company had fielded a “number” of calls and emails from both theatre-goers and donors who were angered by the actions of the trio. Management was yesterday locked in talks with the actors. While Dunn declined to provide details about those discussions,she confirmed she would be seeking assurances from the three actors about their on-stage actions.
“There’s certainly been a number of calls and emails from people in the broader community who have been distressed by the prospect of what they perceive happened,” said Dunn. “A number of people are looking to either cancel subscriptions or potentially do not want to take up their tickets for the current season. And a number of our donors have expressed their distress and dismay,and we’re working through those conversations at the moment.”
Dunn confirmed STC was not aware of the actors’ plans and said the company in no way endorsed the protest. She said STC was approaching the issues from a human resources perspective.
“Our approach really comes from a perspective of an employment duty of care position in terms of both our artists that are employed at the company as well as the rest of the staff,but also duty of care to our audiences,” she said.