Smoking Ban Onstage in Scotland Challenged
Sir Winston Churchill just might end up getting back his trademark cigar after all.
Paul Gudgin, director of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, has spoken out against the onstage smoking ban in Scotland. One Scottish MP has warned that the country is in danger of becoming an international laughing-stock because of their “Calvinist and puritanical” views.
Check below the fold for more information on the over-zealous crusade against smoking in this corner of the United Kingdom that is being termed “so bloody stupid” by wiser, if not cooler, heads.
More from Robbie.Dinwoodie at The Herald:
Ministers face renewed pressure to reconsider the on-stage smoking ban for theatres after the director of the Edinburgh Fringe said he would lobby for a change in the legislation if performers felt it was harming their work.
This will be the Edinburgh Festival’s first year since the ban on smoking in enclosed public places came into being. Unlike the ban proposed for England, it offers no exemption for actors on stage playing characters who smoke.
Paul Gudgin said: “This is the first Fringe since the smoking legislation has come into effect and it will be interesting to see how venues and shows react.
“If a significant number of performers feel the ban is affecting their work on a creative level, then this is an issue we’ll be obliged to raise again with the Scottish Executive.”
Brian Monteith, the independent MSP who formerly sat as a Tory, said Scotland was in danger of making itself a laughing stock by its over-zealous ban, which could cause real damage to the stage and film industries. “So far as I can establish, Scotland is the only place in the world where smoking is banned for actors on stage. All over America, where bans are in place, there are exemptions for this.
“In Scotland, so Calvinist and puritanical are we that the parliament accepted an amendment from Stewart Maxwell to ban even substitute herbal cigarettes. As if people would go and act on stage just to get a smoke – it’s preposterous.”
He pointed out it was legal for theatres to use smoke machines for special effects, which could spark off coughing among the audience, but not for an actor playing Churchill to smoke a cigar.
He claimed a recent production of Carmen, which opens in a cigarette factory, “just looked so bloody stupid” without the cast smoking, yet his nemesis, the SNP’s Stewart Maxwell, who led the campaign for a ban, used that same performance as an example of why it was not artistically necessary for actors to smoke on stage.
“Carmen went ahead with no problems. Maybe other actors should use their artistic abilities to work around it. These complaints have often been an excuse for being lazy.”
He added that comments by actor Mel Smith, who is to play Churchill on the Fringe and claimed the smoking ban would have been approved by Hitler, were “over-the-top rubbish typical of a bunch of luvvies”.
He also ridiculed the idea that a ban in indoor film sets could see business lost to Scotland. “If Dr Who’s Tardis can be made to zoom around the centuries, I can’t believe the ban on smoking can’t be overcome,” said Mr Maxwell.
Martin Brown, of the actors’ union Equity, said there were some circumstances in which a simple false cigarette blowing talcum powder was not a real option, particularly in film close-ups which demand great realism.
If a choice of a film location was in the balance, or if a decision to bring a particular theatre production north of the border was marginal, this complication could tip the balance.
Donald Gorrie, the LibDem MSP who supported the ban in general but wanted an actors’ exemption, said he would support reopening the issue and making an amendment but did not think that was likely. He believed supporters of the ban simply got carried away during the votes in their determination to give nothing away.
“They were going over the top but it may now be difficult to rescue,” he said.
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Tags: anti smoking campaign, Cigar People, cigar smokers, edinburgh fringe festival, religious fundamentalism, scotland, smoking ban, smoking in public, uk, united kingdom
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