Audience at a West End production of Les Miserables brought to a halt by Just ... trends now
The audience at a West End production of Les Miserables 'went mad' and 'started swearing' when the musical was brought to a halt after Just Stop Oil protesters ruined the performance, a court has heard.
The performance at the Sondheim Theatre was stopped at about 9pm on October 5 last year when activists stormed the stage and locked themselves to the set, their trial was told.
The 'angry' audience of around 1,000 people was asked to leave the auditorium before the performance was brought to a halt around an hour later, the court heard.
The estimated cost to the theatre of cancelling the performance was £60,000, the court was told.
Hannah Taylor, 23, Lydia Gribbin, 28, Hanan Ameur, 22, Noah Crane, 18, and Poppy Bliss, 19, deny aggravated trespass.
The Just Stop Oil protesters allegedly disrupted a performance of Les Miserables in October
(left to right) Noah Crane, 18, Poppy Bliss, 19, Hanan Ameur, 22, Hannah Taylor, 23, and Lydia Gribbin, 28, pictured outside Westminster Magistrates Court today
Gribbin and Crane also deny causing criminal damage to the theatre's orchestra pit netting, designed to protect the musicians from objects falling off the stage.
The netting suffered 'structural damage' from the weight of two of the protesters standing on it during the incident, it is alleged.
Asked how the audience had reacted to the group disrupting the performance, theatre manager Daniel Lewis told Westminster Magistrates' Court: 'I heard frustration, I heard anger, I heard
