Michael Imperioli seemed to channel some of his former Sopranos energy while dealing with a climate protestor who interrupted a Thursday night performance of his Broadway play Enemy of the People at the Circle in the Square Theatre.
According to fan video of the incident, a man stood up during the performance and began shouting, “Governments have failed us!” and “No theater on a dead planet!”
As a group of people, including Imperioli — who didn’t break character — surrounded the protestor, one peeved audience member drew raucous applause from patrons by shouting in reply, “You gotta write your own play, you understand that!?”
That same quipper began chanting, “You got to go!” while Imperioli and others escorted the man out of the venue.
According to the audience member who posted the video to X, formerly Twitter, some of the audience members initially thought the outburst was part of the show’s town hall scene because Imperioli’s co-star Jeremy Strong also didn’t break character.
After the performance, a climate group called Extinction Rebellion took responsibility for the incident, according to Variety, stating in part, “[Thursday’s] action highlights the failure of governments and corporations to treat climate and ecological breakdown as the crisis it is.”
For his part, Imperioli addressed the “wild” situation on Instagram after the show, noting while he’s concerned about the environment, his character isn’t down with the struggle. “tonight was wild….no hard feelings extinction rebellion crew,” the actor wrote. “michael is on your side but mayor stockmann is not. much love.”
Enemy of the People dates back to 1882 and has Imperioli playing the mayor of a resort town trying to tamp down a scandal revolving around the town’s contaminated spa water.
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