“All the world’s a stage” – or perhaps not: Omooba

In Omooba v Michael Garrett Associates Ltd (t/a Global Artists) & Anor [2024] EAT 30, Ms Seyi Omooba, an actor, was cast as Celie in a stage production of The Color Purple. Celie is regarded as an iconic lesbian role and the announcement that Ms Omooba was to play it led to a social media storm about an earlier Facebook post in which she had expressed her belief that homosexuality was a sin. As a result, her contracts with the theatre (the second respondent) and her agency (the first respondent) were terminated.

Before the Employment Tribunal, she claimed religion and belief discrimination, harassment and breach of contract.  Shortly before the ET hearing however, having only at that point read the script, she volunteered that she would never in fact have played the part of Celie and would have resigned from the role in due course.  The ET dismissed her claims with costs.

She appealed against those decisions and against a further order relating to the continued use of the hearing documents. Continue reading