Fringe chief's herbal remedy to beat smoking ban on stage
ACTORS should be allowed to smoke herbal cigarettes on stage to get round Scotland's smoking ban, the director of the Fringe Festival said today.
Paul Gudgin wants to join forces with Scotland's theatre and film industries to lobby the Scottish Executive on the issue.
Under the current legislation, even cigarettes that do not contain tobacco are banned from enclosed public spaces. Mr Gudgin says that artistic freedom is being taken away from directors and actors by the ban and says that a film like Trainspotting could no longer be produced in Scotland.
A touring company that produced a Fringe hit this year has said it is unsure if it will return next year because of the ban.
Mr Gudgin said: "The smoking ban is a big issue for the whole of the theatre and film industry. The extraordinary thing is that one show that appeared on the Fringe, Trainspotting, could not be filmed now or created on stage.
"We need to make the case with the whole of the theatre and film industries in Scotland that small accommodations on the smoking ban will help protect large parts of the theatre and film industry.
"In Dublin and New York you can use herbal cigarettes and I think that makes perfect sense. Realism is extremely important."
Mr Gudgin says that he will be speaking to directors of several venues "when the dust settles" to get feedback on how they coped with the first smoke-free Fringe, which ended yesterday.
Anthony Alderson, director of The Pleasance, said that the Red Shift touring company, which this year staged an acclaimed version of the classic Michael Caine film Get Carter, were particularly annoyed by the ban.
He said: "Get Carter is set in the 1960s in Camden - how can you represent that without cigarettes? Red Shift are thinking twice about coming back to Edinburgh.
"The difficulty is that if you have someone onstage with an unlit cigarette in their mouth the audience get distracted and start thinking about why the cigarette is not lit. It just doesn't work and interferes with the play."
Comedian Mel Smith sparked controversy when he lit a cigar during a photocall for his Assembly Rooms play Allegiance this year. And Ben Waring, director of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, had to make the characters cocaine users instead of smokers for his C Venues play.
Ginnie Atkinson, chief executive of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, supported Mr Gudgin's views. She said: "It seems like herbal cigarettes would be a very sensible solution to the problem. It would be sensible to allow re-enactment of smoking on stage."
But the national development agency for film say that they will not be supporting Mr Gudgin in his lobbying of ministers.
Celia Stevenson, a spokeswoman for Scottish Screen said: "We would be very happy to talk to Mr Gudgin about his views but smoking on screen can encourage people to smoke and we do not want to do that.
"I understand it can cause problems but hopefully there will be a way around that soon, with something that creates a smoky atmosphere without breaking the law."
An Executive spokeswoman said: "There are no plans to review or change the legislation."
