Equity demands paid work at Cambridge Shakespeare Festival after 2024 tribunal

Iain Croker, regional official for Equity, said: “Our members are professionals and expect to be paid as such; it is not a professional credit if it is not paid.

“I fear for the future of the festival if they continue to ignore the law and urge them to pay their performers a fair wage in line with other outdoor theatre producers.”

The Stage contacted Crilly for his response.

He said: "I have never referred to the actors as ‘volunteers’ as that suggests they are working on a voluntary basis. They are not working - they are doing something they are passionate about - for their own reasons, and in their own time."

The academic, who founded the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival in 1988, previously told The Stage that many “dedicated, hard-working, professional people” had chosen “of their own free will” to take part in his unpaid “cultural project" over the years. Those who take part in the festival do receive weekly expenses, plus free accommodation, but not a wage.

Speaking shortly after the tribunal, he claimed that the hearing had “fundamentally” misunderstood the spirit of his festival, which attracts thousands of visitors to its eight-week season each year.

Shows tabled for performance this summer run from July 14 to August 30 in venues including King’s College Gardens, Downing College Gardens and St John’s College Gardens.

The programme spans a breadth of the Shakespearean canon, from the ‘Scottish tragedy’ Macbeth to the comedy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.