Much ado about BP sponsorship as West End play hit by protest Tonight, members of the Reclaim Shakespeare Company jumped on stage at the Nol Coward theatre to deliver another surprise anti-BP performance. Just before the second half of a BP-sponsored Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) performance of Much Ado About Nothing was due to begin, the three actor-vists performed a short Shakespeare-inspired piece. They challenged the RSC over its decision to accept sponsorship from BP in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster, the company's decision to start extracting highly polluting and destructive tar sands oil in Canada, and its enormous contribution towards climate change. Yesterday it was announced that BP has entered a partnership with Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft in order to exploit the hazardous and vulnerable Arctic. 'I want not your dirty ducats!' -- photo by David Hoffman This was the eighth intervention by the Reclaim Shakespeare Company, the most recent taking place at Stratford-upon-Avon last month. In the two-minute sketch, 'BP', sporting a huge logo as a ruff, sidles up to 'RSC', and offers 'a thousand ducats' for her help in 'seeming virtuous' . They shake hands on the deal as 'BP' proclaims 'By your reputation, I shall mine own mend'. 'RSC' eventually recognises the error of her ways, bellowing 'I want not your dirty ducats' and asking 'Did'st not Formula One live on without tobacco sponsorship?' before ripping the BP logo from her chest. The audience responded with laughter and applause. The full script