National Theatre heads defend sponsors Delta and BNP Paribas amid net zero drive

National Theatre bosses have defended this year’s sponsorship deals with Delta Air Lines and BNP Paribas as it announced plans to “turbocharge” its sustainability.

Artistic director Rufus Norris and executive director Kate Varah spoke about the newly-opened National Theatre Green Store as they announced the upcoming season’s programme at a press conference on Tuesday.

The organisation unveiled the 36,000sq ft warehouse in south Bermondsey to house more than 137,000 costumes, props and scenery in one place to encourage production reuse, reduce impact and bolster resource sharing with other theatres, TV, film productions and more.

The central London location means resources will be more accessible to designers and creatives in the capital, they said.

The National Theatre has also received a donated electric truck to traffic materials to and from its South Bank theatre complex, further reducing its carbon impact.

Ms Varah told reporters this will “turbocharge our approach to sustainable theatre-making” and marks “great progress towards our net zero by 2030 target”.

But the co-chief executives were also questioned about Delta Air Lines and BNP Paribas, which were announced among the list of sponsors for the season.

The airline produces emissions from flights while the bank provides financing for firms linked to fossil fuels.

Norris, who announced last year he would step down in 2025, said: “This is a complex question and it’s not simplistic so I’m not going to answer it in a simplistic way.

“We are a publicly-funded organisation, and so it is beholden on us to scrutinise in great detail all the relationships that we have and we do that.”

The artistic director added that the National Theatre received more than 50% of its income from subsidy when it was created in the 1960s but this is now less than 15%.

“That is a radical drop-off and it’s meant that we have had to expand and be really imaginative about the partnerships and the ways that we operate,” he said.

“If you believe in institutions like this, which I fervently do, then we’ve got to be creative and we’ve got to be responsive in that.”

Ms Varah said the theatre has “robust” ethical donation policies and works closely to Charity Commission guidance on donations acceptance.

“We’re a charity,” she said. “Fundraising enables us to deliver a core part of our mission and corporate fundraising is really vital within that.”

Pressed on the contradiction of driving to be a sustainability leader and accepting money from firms linked to fossil fuels, she said: “We support every single part of the organisation through philanthropy, statutory funding and our box office.

“We are really broadening and diversifying our income streams and we do rightly look in detail at every single partnership that we have.

“But when we make a decision to work with a partner, we stand by them and we’re proud of the decision that we’ve made because it enables the impact that we can have at the National Theatre.

“Those organisations that we work with are absolutely shoulder to shoulder with us in achieving all of the things that we can talk about – the reach into schools, the reach into communities, the reach to artists in support of freelancers.”

The new season runs from February 2025, with some productions yet to be scheduled.

It will see Rosamund Pike make her National Theatre debut in Inter Alia – a new production from Prime Facie writer Susie Miller.

As Norris marks his final season as artistic director, he also will direct the musical London Road as well as Nye, starring Michael Sheen returning to the role of Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, who spearheaded the founding of the NHS.

Delta and BNP Paribas have been asked for comment.