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Sydney Theatre Company has confirmed it is “seeking undertakings” from actors who expressed solidarity with Palestine during Saturday night’s curtain call for the company’s production of The Seagull, after patrons and donors expressed their anger to the company.
At the end of the opening night of the Chekhov classic, adapted by Andrew Upton and starring Sigrid Thornton, actors Harry Greenwood, Mabel Li and Megan Wilding each emerged wearing Palestinian keffiyeh scarves as a gesture of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Mabel Li (left), Harry Greenwood (right) and Megan Wilding (second right) wear traditional keffiyeh in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Seagull. Source: InstagramCredit:
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 actor’s 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 says.
The actors involved in the action did not respond to requests for comment, however a number of other actors have expressed concern at STC’s response. Elaine Crombie, who starred in the ABC’s Black Comedy and Top End Wedding said on Instagram she was “extremely perplexed” at the company’s response.
Harry Greenwood (Constantine) and Sigrid Thornton (Irina).Credit: Prudence Upton
“I’m not here for this, Sydney Theatre Company, not at all,” she said. Catherine Văn-Davies, who starred in The Twelve, also posted on Instagram saying the keffiyeh was a symbol of “hope not of hate”.
Both actors have been involved in STC productions this year.
“I hope that we are safe in our workplaces to reflect our humanity as we are asked to do so in our craft,” she said.
“It’s not about not upsetting people, it’s about that we have in place a respectful workplace policy that’s there to ensure that all people in the workplace feel safe and feel comfortable to be in their workplace. And it is a policy that we take seriously.”
She added that actors were welcome to express political opinions in their workplace.
“They have a right to express themselves, and they have their own platforms to do that. The company expresses its perspective and position on matters of the day via the works that we program for our stages.”
On Monday morning, NSW Liberal senator-elect Dave Sharma said, in response to the STC situation: “I can understand people feel strongly on both sides with families having been taken hostage…but I don’t think it is helpful to be importing aspects of this conflict into our cultural scene.”
On X, formerly known as Twitter, NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong said: “Imagine apologising for ‘any distress caused’ as a result of three actors wearing a scarf during the encore of a performance.”
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