Scuffle on stage at London opera as performer unfurls Palestinian flag

A cast member who sparked a scuffle after holding up a Palestinian flag at the curtain call in London is a ‘queer dance artist’, it has emerged | WATCH

The scene at the end of the London Opera performance.

A privately educated “queer dance artist” unfurled a Palestinian flag while on stage at the Royal Opera House before tussling with a stagehand who tried to wrest it from him.

During the curtain call on the closing night of the production of Verdi’s Il Trovatore on Saturday, a cast member dressed as a horned demon stood before the audience silently holding the flag.

Video of the incident shows a man emerging from the wings and attempting to take the flag from him. The pair are then seen tugging the flag back and forth while the audience continues to applaud the performance.

The cast member eventually wins out and goes on displaying the flag as crew members standing in the wings appear to shout at him.

Look at this opera pro-Pal aggressively display the Palestinian flag. Fighting staff to keep it. I hope he never works again pic.twitter.com/4ZCIOQlXIK

— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) July 20, 2025

According to The Daily Telegraph, the performer was Daniel Perry, a dancer, choreographer and DJ who was educated at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire, which charges up to £16,000 ($33,000) per term for boarding. Alumni include actors Lily James and Daisy Ridley.

Perry, who describes himself as a “queer dance artist” and uses the pronouns “he” and “they”, a week earlier had attended the 1500th performance of Cabaret wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Free Palestine”.

The dancer had performed in an earlier run of the musical, which is set in Berlin during the Nazis’ rise to power, alongside Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley.

Writing later about the Cabaret performance, Perry posted on Instagram: “In this particular version, we are reminded of how regimental political systems, such as extreme nationalism and fascism, oppress and eradicate individualism, while also segregating people leaving them voiceless, expressionless and helplessly in control by their oppressors. I believe we are currently living in similar times.”

That place gets £23m subsidy each year from the taxpayer, let the wealthy pay an unsubsidised ticket price. But it gets better. The self styled “queer dancer”, Daniel Perry, went to a £48k pa private school. https://t.co/WyUqfxFe6tpic.twitter.com/68wq7NGRZT

— Rush (@exRAF_Al) July 20, 2025

He added that there was a “large amount of silence from producers, creatives and artists working in and around London theatre. I am so disappointed in an industry that I have worked in for over 10 years. Where is your support for those who need our help? What are you doing with your giant platforms?”

Perry did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Ballet and Opera said: “The display of the flag was an unauthorised action by the artist. It was not approved by the Royal Ballet and Opera and is a wholly inappropriate act.”

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, theatres have on several occasions become the stage for pro-Palestinian protests. Last August activists disrupted a show for children at the New Wimbledon Theatre when they unfurled a banner from the dress circle and began chanting.

On Saturday more than 100 people were arrested at demonstrations in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Bristol in protest against the government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terror group.

MPs voted to ban the group after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in June, spraying two Voyager aircraft with red paint and causing £7m worth of damage.

The Sydney Theatre Company has paid a hefty price for the spectacularly poor handling of its Palestinian scarf fiasco, when three actors, in November 2023, draped themselves in keffiyehs at the end of a Chekhov production.

The STC’s accounts recently revealed that gross fundraising revenue was routed, falling from $7.4m in 2023 to $4.8m in 2024. Direct donations, in particular – that is, cash raked in outside campaign drives and annual appeals – fell by just over $1m, from $4.49m to $3.47m.

The Times