End wage theft at Cambridge Shakespeare Festival

Sign the petition to Cambridge Shakespeare Festival to demand they pay their performers.

Sign the petition
£20

Cost of adult ticket to Cambridge Shakespeare Festival production

25,000

Annual audience of Cambridge Shakespeare Festival

£0

Amount performers at Cambridge Shakespeare Festival are paid

They didn't pay their performers in 2022 and now they're trying to do it again. Join us to say: not this time!

In 2023, Cambridge Shakespeare Festival was found guilty by an Employment Tribunal of withholding wages and holiday pay from performers working at the 2022 event.

The Festival claimed they were volunteers but the tribunal ruled that they were workers. 

Two years on from that 2023 Tribunal and Dr Crilly, the director of the Festival, refuses to employ his actors as workers - again! We demand he pay his workers at the 2025 Cambridge Shakespeare Festival and complies with the ruling of the tribunal judge. 

Sign the petition to Dr Crilly

£20 a ticket - audience of 25,000 - £0 for performers

Dr Crilly continues to advertise theatrical roles at this prestigious event yet refuses to pay even the National Minimum Wage to his actors. This is despite charging up to £20 per ticket, selling programs and attracting an annual audience of 25,000 all with very low productions overheads. 

The 2023 Employment Tribunal agreed with Equity that the actors were in fact workers entitled to:

  • At least the National Minimum Wage
  • Holiday Pay
  • and other basic employment rights

 which the Festival unlawfully withheld.

Endangering the future of the festival

Despite the judgment, Cambridge Shakespeare Festival continues to hire actors and deny them National Minimum Wage and other statutory rights. If the Festival continues to ignore employment law they are at risk of further legal action, which could endanger the future of the festival.

Sign the petition

Join thousands of others in calling on the Festival and its director, Dr Crilly, to end this wage theft, and respect our members and professional performers by complying with employment law.

Email the Masters of Cambridge Colleges to withdraw their support for Cambridge Shakespeare Festival

Four Cambridge Colleges currently host the Festival on their premises. One college has already withdrawn support to host plays on their quadrangle in 2026.
 
We're calling on the remaining three colleges to withdraw their support and not allow the plays to take place on their premises until the Festival Director Dr Crilly complies with the tribunal judgement against him and pays his performers a wage for their work.