North Sea protests against oil giant inspire new Scottish stage musical nearly 30 years later

It was a celebrated environmental protest off the coast of Scotland which made headlines around the world.

Now the exploits of activists who took on the might of an oil industry giant in the middle of the North Sea and – and won – is to inspire Scotland’s next big stage musical.

To Save The Sea - which will visit 12 locations across Scotland next month - will recall how Greenpeace campaigners managed to occupy a redundant oil storage installation after the UK Government gave permission for Shell to dump it at sea.

The show will explore how the three-week occupation of the Brent Spar rig around 115 miles north-east of the Shetland Islands, sparked a European-wide boycott of Shell service stations and condemnation from international governments.

More than two months after the first protests at the Brent Spark, Shell abandoned its plans to dump the rig in the Atlantic Ocean around 160 miles.

An eight-strong cast will portray Greenpeace activists, Shell executives, scientists and the politicians who become embroiled in the controversy, including then British Prime Minister John Major and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

To Save The Sea is billed as “an epic adventure story about Scotland and the world, about saving the environment and standing up for what you truly believe in.”

Heartbreaking ballads, outrageous villains, comedic cabaret songs and epic sea shanties are all promised in the show, which will be staged by composer, writer and director Andy McGregor’s theatre company. Sleeping Warrior Theatre.

He has created To Save the Sea with Isla Cowan, a playwright, performer and director, who also work with him on Battery Park, a new musical about the rise and fall of a fictional Britpop band, which toured Scotland last year.

Inspirations for To Save The Sea including the hit musicals Come From Away, which was inspired by the real-life experiences of people brought together in Newfoundland when planes were grounded after the 9/11 terror attacks, The Last Ship, Sting’s show about the demise of the shipbuilding industry, and Operation Mincemeat, about a British intelligence operation to fool Hitler during the Second World War.

Mr McGregor recalled how To Save The Sea emerged from the second lockdown period, when Scottish theatres were all still closed.

He said: "I was tearing my hair out at the time as theatre is a very collaborative art form.

"I decided to put out a tweet asking if anyone wanted to collaborate on a large-scale musical. I didn’t really care what it was about.

"I didn’t know Isla at all when she got in touch with me and we had a Zoom call. She is really interested in environmental issues and eco-activism, and told me she had been doing research on the Brent Spar protests and thought they may be a suitable subject.

"The more we looked at it, it just felt like an unbelievable story, it’s ridiculous what happened. If you had made it up, people would think you were going too far.

“What I loved about the story was the whole scale of it, but also the fact that these individuals can get things changed and have an effect.”

Ms Cowan said: “When I first came across the story of the Brent Spar, I was struck by how dramatic and theatrical and epic the real-life events of this protest were. I felt it just had to be made into a show.”

The first draft of To Save The Sea was written together by the two theatre makers before they had even met in person.

Mr McGregor said: “I would write some lyrics and send them to Isla or she would send me some lyrics and send them to me. We got on great.

“Our thinking was a bit like: ‘This will never get put on, so let’s just make something that we really want to make.’

"There is something about a musical which allows you to be more epic in your storytelling. It heightens everything and you can do things that the audience will accept in a way that you might not be able to do in a play.

"We want to give people a good night out and tell the story in a way that they wouldn’t expect this story to be told. We will be having a lot of fun with it.”

Nathan French, who plays Colin, one of the Greenpeace activists, said: “He is a university student who decides to bin his final year exams to take part in the protests to head up to Shetland to try to climb this oil rig. He really cares about the cause, but he also wants to be in an action movie.

“I’ve been on a lot of environmental protests and marches myself. It’s a story that really resonates with me and I think it will resonate with a lot of people.

"What I really like about the show is that while it’s clearly a very topical and important piece of theatre, it’s also very funny, there are so many different musical tones and there is a lot of entertainment in it.”

To Save The Sea’s creators worked closely with Greenpeace from the outset on the show, which will be launched at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow on 25 September.

Mr McGregor said: "We think it has definitely become more relevant since we started working on it nearly four years ago.

"It’s all set in the 1990s, but we think the audience watching it will totally be thinking of Just Stop Oil, Greta Thunberg and how countries around the world are dealing with climate change. Shell is actually in the process of suing Greenpeace at the moment. The Brent Spar protests happened nearly 30 years ago but they could really have happened yesterday.”

Kaylah Copeland, who plays Brianna, a journalist who joins the protesters on the Brent Spark, said: “She decides to really back the protesters and get the Greenpeace story out there after spending time with them and seeing the hostility that they receive from Shell.

"It feels like a show that is absolutely necessary for this time. People are still battling big corporations who are putting the environment last.”

Ms Cowan added: "The story of the Brent Spar is a story for today. It speaks to our current concerns over oil and the environment, but – most importantly – shows how normal people really can make a difference when they stand up for what they believe in.”