Tag: Harriet Walter

Leading artists condemn campaign against ‘Let it be a Tale’ theatre production

Leading artists, including writer Michael Rosen, actors Billy Howle and Khalid Abdalla, playwrights Caryl Churchill and Tanika Gupta and composer Orlando Gough, have spoken out against attempts to damage the reputation and stifle the work of Brighton’s ThirdSpace theatre company. 

ThirdSpace works with young people. Its latest show, Let it be a Tale, is scheduled for performance in venues across the city before Christmas. 

‘We all carry our stories with us and pass them down,’ reads the company’s description of the show. ‘When someone dies, we keep their memory alive through stories. When cultures are under threat, we keep them alive through stories.’

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Leading Artists to Keir Starmer: Commit to Stopping Arms Sales to Israel

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Over 100 leading cultural figures in Britain, including Oscar and
BAFTA-winners, have called on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to commit to stop
arming Israel if elected Prime Minister on 4 July.

Signatories to the letter include Oscar-winning actor Riz Ahmed and director
Asif Kapadia, singer Paloma Faith, actors including BAFTA-winning Steve
Coogan, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Paapa Essiedu, Dame Harriet Walter, Joe
Alwyn and Lena Heady.

The call comes amid an escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which
recently saw Israeli strikes on a designated ‘safe area’ in Rafah kill over 50
civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing
arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and
crimes against humanity. Continue reading →

Olivia Colman among 1000+ artists accusing art institutions of censorship on Palestine

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More than 1,300 artists, including Academy Award winning Olivia Colman, Olivier Award winners Harriet Walter and Juliet Stevenson, BAFTA winners Aimee Lou Wood and Siobhán McSweeney, Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You), Susanne Wokoma (Enola Holmes), Youseff Kerkour (Napoleon), Nicola Coughlan (Derry Girls, Bridgerton), Amir El-Masry (The Crown) and Lolly Adefope (Ghosts), have launched a letter addressed to the arts and culture sector, that accuses cultural institutions across Western countries of:

 “repressing, silencing and stigmatising Palestinian voices and perspectives”. 

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Leading artists condemn Israeli raids on Palestinian cultural centres & call for sanctions

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Photo: Edward Said National Conservatory of Music by Ahdaf Soueif for PalFest

  • Massive Attack, Steve Coogan, Peter Gabriel, Maxine Peake, Philip Pullman and Benjamin Zephaniah are among 60+ cultural figures to put their names to an open letter condemning attacks on key Palestinian cultural centres.
  • The letter says the attacks are ‘part of a well-documented campaign of harassment and intimidation, arrests, home demolitions and forced evictions’ by the Israeli government. 
  • Brian Eno: ‘These raids … seem designed to break the morale of the Palestinian people, to deny them the last thing that they actually own: their culture ’
  • The artists call for ‘targeted and lawful sanctions’ against Israel.

Signatories to the letter include:

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Speak out to stop annexation now

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Mercury award-winning band Wolf Alice, Peter Gabriel, authors Philip Pullman, Irvine Welsh, Colm Tóibín, and Selma Dabbagh, actors Harriet Walter and Julie Christie are among cultural figures joining many MPs, trade unions and human rights organisations to call on the UK government and political parties to: “support the call of Palestinian civil society organisations for effective measures by all States to stop Israel’s illegal annexation of the occupied West Bank”.

Artists for Palestine UK is proud to partner on the launch of this vital call to action, the text of which is reproduced below. The campaign launches with this letter in the Guardian.

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