Fringe boss has herbal remedy for smoke ban
ACTORS should be allowed to smoke herbal cigarettes on stage to get round Scotland's smoking ban, the director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe said yesterday.
Paul Gudgin wants to join forces with Scotland's theatre and film industries to lobby the Scottish Executive on the issue.
Under current legislation, even cigarettes that do not contain tobacco are banned from enclosed public spaces.
Mr Gudgin said the ban was taking artistic freedom away from directors and actors, and that a play or film like Trainspotting could no longer be produced in Scotland.
"I think the smoking ban is a really good thing. I love it, but it does make certain types of performance a little difficult," he said. "It's something that is of wider concern for the theatre and film industry, as well as the Fringe.
"We will be trying to do our bit over the next year to see if some more appropriate compromise can be reached."
He said even small accommodations on the smoking ban would help protect large parts of the Scottish theatre and film industry.
"In Dublin and New York you can use herbal cigarettes and I think that makes perfect sense," he said. "Realism is extremely important."
This year, the comic Mel Smith sparked controversy when he lit a cigar at a photocall for his play, Allegiance, while Ben Waring, director of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, had to make his characters cocaine users instead of smokers.
But an Executive spokeswoman said: "There are no plans to review or change the legislation."
