Alas poor RSC! How hath BP baffled thee?
Channel: BP or not BP?
Date: 2012-09-30

On Saturday 29th September 2012, theatre-goers attending a BP-sponsored performance of Twelfth Night at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon were treated to a bit of a surprise. Members of the 'Reclaim Shakespeare Company' jumped on stage, and delivered a special anti-BP performance of their own, in front of a full house - who clearly enjoyed it...

This was the seventh intervention by the Reclaim Shakespeare Company, and the third on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage.

For the full story, see: http://www.bp-or-not-bp.org/news/twelfthnight/
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The script :

Character 1 - BP:

If oil be the fuel for us, drill on;
Give us excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The planet may sicken, and so die.
Let's drill again! And cast a dying pall,
O'er the tar sands of sweet Canada,
The Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico,
Stealing and screwing over.

Character 2 -- RSC:

British Petrolio! By the roses of the spring,
by branding, sponsorship and everything,
I love thee so, that, discarding my pride,
nor wit nor reason can my passion hide.
For I do love thee for thy patronage
With adorations, fertile tears, with groans
that thunder love, with sighs of fire...

Character 3 -- Feste

[Interrupts RSC]
If this were played upon a stage now,
I would condemn't as an improbable fiction!
Alas, poor RSC, how hath BP baffled thee?
Thou hast made contract of eternal bond
With a notable pirate, a deepwater thief!
Art thou mad, to profit from such a dissembler?
For some are born green, some achieve greenness,
And some purchase a semblance of greenness by sponsoring cultural events...
I prithee, RSC, direct thy feet
Where thou and BP henceforth may never meet!

Character 2 -- RSC

Enough! No more!
Oil's not as sweet now as it was before.
BP, thou villain! How was I beguiled?
Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness,
Wherein the oily enemy does much.
[Points at BP] You spread a green and yellow melancholy,
Sitting without conscience in your offices,
Smiling at grief.

I would I were well rid of this knavery.
Out damned logo! [rips logo from programme]