Actors including Mark Rylance, Paapa Essiedu and Stephen Dillane have signed an open letter calling on the Old Vic theatre to cut ties with a major sponsor over its links to fossil fuels, the Observer can reveal.
Signed by dozens of actors, playwrights, directors and other creatives, the letter calls on the historic London theatre to end links with its principal financial partner, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). The contract is up for renewal this year.
The group is concerned about the hundreds of billions of dollars the bank has invested in fossil fuel projects in recent years. They cite the Banking on Climate Chaos report, which found that the RBC was among 12 banks that had invested the most in fossil fuel projects in the last eight years. The report found that, in 2023, RBC invested $28.2bn into fossil fuels, and $256bn since the Paris climate agreement in 2016.
The letter also expressed concerns that RBC holds “billions of dollars of shares” in weapons manufacturers that have supplied the Israeli military during the war in Gaza.
“The Old Vic, an institution with a prominent and influential role in the arts world, is helping to both enhance the reputation and further the business of one of the world’s biggest financiers of fossil fuel development and investors in war,” the letter said.
“As those working in theatre and the arts, we recognise that funding pressures across the sector are acute and that the Old Vic in particular is more reliant upon commercial and private sources of income. However, we have now seen numerous arts and cultural organisations draw clear ethical red lines and shift away from unethical sponsors and donors.”
A spokesperson for RBC contested the letter’s contents and said the bank already makes, and plans to make, billions of dollars available to the renewable energy sector.
As well as Rylance, Game of Thrones star Dillane, and Essiedu, who was nominated for a Bafta for his role in I May Destroy You, the letter’s 80 signatories also include The End of the F***ing World lead Alex Lawther and several award-winning playwrights, including Caryl Churchill.
Rylance has been involved in plays at the Old Vic and its namesake venue in Bristol. In 2019, he resigned from the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he was a regular performer early in his career, over its sponsorship deal with BP, which it ended later that year.
RBC said it plans “to triple our lending for renewable energy across capital markets and commercial banking from $5bn to $15bn and grow low-carbon lending to $35bn by 2030”. It added: “RBC follows a globally recognised framework for determining, assessing, and managing environmental and social risks for project-related finance, which considers climate impacts and human rights impacts.
“Before financing a project, RBC conducts due diligence to assess whether environmental and social issues have been adequately considered and minimised, mitigated or offset.”
The letter marks a new front in the debate over funding of the country’s cultural institutions. After a campaign in May, the Hay literary festival was forced to drop its main sponsor – investment management firm Baillie Gifford – over financial links to Israel and fossil fuel companies.
Baillie Gifford eventually pulled out of other literary festivals including Cheltenham, whose organisers warned that without funders like Baillie Gifford “ticket prices would increase, schools programmes would reduce in scope” and “some festivals would close”.
Last month, the Observer reported that the Science Museum has cut ties with oil company Equinor over the sponsor’s environmental record after years of pressure by campaigners.
Cress Brown, one of the signatories and a theatre director who has worked at the Old Vic’s sister venue in Bristol, said: “The RBC is consistently rated one of the world’s most polluting banks and has shown it is not interested in changing its business model. For this reason, it must be considered in the same ethical category as major polluters such as BP, which scores of arts institutions such as the RSC have cut ties with.
“We all know funding is hard work, but a prestigious venue such as the Old Vic is in a position to have greater ethical standards, which many of its peers uphold, to ensure that creative talent is not misused for the benefit of major polluters, human rights abusers and arms manufacturers.”
The Old Vic said: “We respect the varied views of our colleagues within the creative community. As a registered charity with no regular public subsidy, the Old Vic is reliant on ticket sales and philanthropic and corporate donations. We work with a variety of partners to further our mission: to enable anyone to experience, make and benefit from theatre.”
• This article was amended on 11 August 2024. An earlier version said that Bristol Old Vic was a sister venue to the Old Vic, London, but that is no longer the case.
