When climate activists discontinued a production of An Enemy of the People on Broadway Thursday night, one of its stars, Michael Imperioli, initially thought it was a set piece. “I thought maybe the director had asked people to do that,” he says Rolling rock on Friday morning zoom. So the actor, best known for his roles in The Sopranos and White Lotusremained in character, playing the mayor of a town who wants to silence a protest by the play's protagonist, who plays of succession Jeremy Strong.
The protest took place about halfway through the production during a scene at a town hall meeting in which the cast invites audience members on stage as Strong's character gives his report on the city's polluted bathhouses. When one of the characters raised an objection, a video of the protest was posted on social media shows a man in the audience standing up. “I object to the silencing of scientists,” the protester said. “I am very, very sorry to interrupt your evening and this amazing show. I am a theater artist. I have worked professionally in this theater…” Imperioli cut him off, saying, “Sorry, you have to go. Interrupt.” Others shouted, “Get him out, get him out.” The actors continued in character, “You're not allowed to talk.” Imperioli and another actor tried to push him away.
“When that started going down, I started calling them liars because that would be my character's stance on climate change because that's his stance on poison in the water. [Strong’s character is] lies,” says Imperioli Rolling rock. “I told the protesters, 'this is all speculation,' which is my line in the play. And then I realized they weren't going anywhere. And so I said, “Well, I'm the mayor and I'm the police chief. It's up to me to restore order,' so I just follow that instinct. If I was playing another character, I wouldn't have gone out into the audience and put my hands on that person.”
Other protesters stood up and denounced an “ecological emergency.” Strong looked bewildered until the protesters were completely ushered out of the building. “There is no Broadway on a dead planet,” shouted the original protester.
“For me, it was exciting,” says Imperioli. “So I agree with these protesters and climate change is extremely pressing and immediate [issue], and it will be more and more terrible as time goes on. But if I played [Strong’s character] Dr. Stockman, I would not have jumped into the audience and started pushing the man out of the theater. That was the mayor, it wasn't me.”
A group identifying itself as Extinction Rebellion NYC claimed responsibility for the disruption on social media. “Climate activists are not the enemy. they are fossil fuel criminals like Exxon & Chevron,” he wrote. The team targeted the project after Strong's character becomes an “enemy of the people” when he asks his town to clean up the contaminated baths. It turns out to be a costly measure and the townspeople rebel against it. The team seem to see their action as ironic, but ticket holders disagreed. Variety reports that a woman yelled, “Christopher!” in support of Imperioli removing the protester, using his name Soprano character.
Actor David Patrick Kelly shouted at the protesters: “Write your own play.” A voice was heard over the PA asking the actors to leave the stage, but the rioters were gone before the actors could exit.
“Once the game went on, everything was kind of heightened and really, really realistic,” says Imperioli. “And I ended up making a lot of discoveries that I probably wouldn't have made if that hadn't happened.”
A representative for its producers An Enemy of the People he didn't answer right away The Rolling Stones request for comment.
An NYPD spokesman said they were not aware of any arrests related to the incident at this time. said one of the protesters Time Out New York there were no arrests.
The protest is the latest incident of climate activists targeting the arts. In December, one of two people accused of destroying a Degas sculpture at the National Gallery of Art, resulting in $2,400 in restitution in 2022, pleaded guilty. Another is expected to go to trial. They face up to five years in prison. a judge will sentence the protester who agreed to a plea deal next month, according to The Washington Post.
In November, the same climate activists who interrupted An Enemy of the People discontinued his Metropolitan Opera production Tannhäusershouting, “No opera on a dead planet,” according to OperaWire.com. And last October, London police arrested five protesters who disrupted the show Les Misérablesaccording The guardian.
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