No butts - Fringe show is issued with smoke-ban warning
A FRINGE show that threatened to defy the smoking ban at this year's Edinburgh Festival has been officially warned off.
Producers of Bill Hicks: Slight Return, about the famous comedian and heavy smoker who died of cancer, promised to bring back their show "in defiance of the smoking ban".
But that single line in the brochure - which shows the lead actor smoking - triggered a warning phone call from the city council. "It was to double check to make sure we were not smoking at all," said the associate producer, Kat Portman. "They are obviously very tight on it. They were pretty quick off the mark."
Bill Hicks: Slight Return is heading back to Edinburgh after two sell-out years. In the past the show's star, Chas Early, smoked throughout. Taunting the audience that they were not allowed to smoke was part of the act.
But this year, Early will step outside the Pleasance theatre for a smoke while the audience watches a TV projection, Portman said, adding: "It's trying to find a way round what we believe for the theatre is a ridiculously puritanical law. We're going to have a bit of fun with it and make a point about it."
Smoking tobacco or even herbal cigarettes on stage is now banned, and actors and producers have protested about the new law. Several Fringe companies are struggling to comply.
One Fringe venue manager, Tomek Borkowy, who runs the Hill Street Theatre, has vowed to defy the ban. He said one European company due to perform at his venue featured smoking on stage during their show and had asked if it should be redone. "I said 'no', so I am going to be on the line," he said.
"Among those countries where a smoking ban exists, Scotland is the only one which has failed to make an exception for theatre and film.
"I strongly believe that during the preparation of the legislation, no research was done on the impact of the ban on the performing arts industry."
Jonathan Holloway, the director of Get Carter, also showing at the Pleasance, said the ban was a major problem for a play set in the ganglands of the 1970s.
"In the production that we have got at the moment, everybody smokes their heads off all the way through it," he said.
He suggested that the Scottish Executive had obviously "dug a hole for itself", but he did not plan to flout the ban.
The city council said it had held several meetings with the Fringe to look at ways of making companies aware of the ban.
"We have been working with the Fringe and with the venue managers to brief them about various regulations," a spokesman said. " We want to work with them so there are as few problems as possible."
