Northern Ireland’s smoking ban has had an unexpected impact on a Belfast production of a classic play.
Smoking ban not lifted for actors
2007/06/19
Actors who want to light up on stage are not getting any exemption from the smoking ban, the assembly has heard.
Theatres had asked for the ban on smoking to be lifted for stage productions, arguing that it was needed for artistic integrity.
Health Minister Michael McGimpsey was expected to agree but he has decided not to back the exemption.
He said he had taken account of the concerns of health professionals. The move was welcomed in the assembly.
Mr McGimpsey told MLAs: “Smoke-free legislation was introduced with the primary aim of protecting the public health.
“In my view, actual smoking is not essential to protect the integrity of a particular performance.
“Even if this were the case, I do not believe it outweighs the public health argument.”
Northern Ireland’s smoking ban came into effect on 30 April in a bid to reduce the deaths as a result of people breathing in second-hand smoke.
Belfast’s Lyric Theatre contacted acclaimed Irish playwright Brian Friel to see if they could rewrite scenes where a cigarette is smoked in their current production of his play Dancing At Lughnasa.
However, assembly members were pleased at the health minister’s move.
The assembly health committee’s chairman, Democratic U nionist MP Iris Robinson, said it was clear there was strong opposition to smoking.
“During evidence to the committee on public health issues last Thursday, the chief medical officer pointed out that the introduction of the smoking ban on workplaces and public places was a major step forward but that much more needed to be done,” she said.
“He reminded us that smoking claims the lives of approximately 2,300 people every year in Northern Ireland – a very damning and shocking statistic.
“I very much welcome the smoking ban on workplaces and I feel that any relaxation of the ban would have given entirely the wrong message.”
The decision was also welcomed by Sinn Fein’s Caral Ni Chuilin, the Ulster U nionists’ Reverend Robert Coulter and the SDLP’s Carmel Hanna.
Northern Ireland’s smoking ban relaxed for theatres
June 7, 2007
The ban on smoking in public places in Northern Ireland is to be relaxed for the region’s theatres just weeks after being introduced.
Earlier this month, Belfast’s Lyric Theatre was forced to ask playwright Brian Friel to re-write a pivotal scene in his award-winning play Dancing at Lughnasa in order to avoid impinging on the ban which came into effect on April 30.
Now, the newly elected Northern Ireland Assembly looks set to grant a dispensation to theatre productions and other public performances with the passing of the Health (Miscellaneous Provision) Order 2007, which will amend the legislation “to make provision for those taking part in performances, so as to permit smoking by such performers if artistic integrity so requires”.
Commenting on the strict implementation of the original ban, Michael McGimpsey, the new health minister and one-time arts minister in a previous assembly, said political correctness “could sometimes be taken a bit far”.
Northern Ireland to relax ban
Owen Bowcott, Ireland correspondent
June 5, 2007
June 5, 2007
Artistic integrity has trumped healthy living. Northern Ireland’s ban on smoking in the workplace is to be relaxed, enabling actors to puff away on stage.
The decision to introduce a special exemption order comes after the distinguished Irish playwright Brian Friel was forced to rewrite a critical scene for a revival of his classic Dancing at Lughnasa at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast.
The province’s smoking ban came into effect on April 30, preventing performers from lighting up cigarettes.
A similar ban in Scotland led to the actor Mel Smith protesting at the Edinburgh fringe festival last year about the difficulty of appearing as Winston Churchill while gesticulating with an unlit cigar. He claimed the ban would have delighted Adolf Hitler.
In the Republic of Ireland, the first European country to introduce a workplace smoking ban, the problem has been circumvented by allowing actors to inhale herbal cigarettes which do not contain nicotine.
The health (miscellaneous provisions) (Northern Ireland) order 2007 due to be introduced to the Stormont assembly today will declare that actors shall “not to be prevented from smoking if the artistic integrity of the performance makes it appropriate for them to smoke”. The exemption will cover plays, film, television programmes and other public performances.
When the problem first emerged, Northern Ireland’s new health minister, Michael McGimpsey, suggested that political correctness could “sometimes be taken a bit far”.
Dancing at Lughnasa features five sisters living in remote Donegal in the 30s. In one scene a sister smokes a cigarette, a sign then of her liberation from restrictive social expectations.
Michael Diskin, the executive director of the Lyric, has welcomed the proposed change but regrets that it has come too late for his theatre’s latest production.
Smoking ban may be amended for theatre
May 26, 2007
Claire Regan
Claire Regan
Northern Ireland’s new smoke-free laws look set to be amended to protect the artistic integrity of dramatic productions which require performers to light up.
Health minister Michael McGimpsey last night told the Belfast Telegraph he would be supportive of a move to change the legislation – not yet a month old – to make productions being performed or filmed indoors exempt if the plot would otherwise be compromised.
The opening of such a loophole would be welcome news for theatre producers faced with the problem of how to portray smoking scenes central to any production without actually lighting up.
One example of how the ban has impacted on the province’s arts scene was seen in the Lyric Theatre’s dilemma over a production of Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa.
The playwright was asked by the venue to rewrite stage directions for two scenes which would have involved a cigarette being smoked on stage.
And Scotland’s ban got off to a controversial start last year when actor Mel Smith was angered by demands that he could not light a Havana cigar as part of his portrayal of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill.
The comic threatened to ignore the ban for his performance in Allegiance at Edinburgh Fringe – saying the ban would have delighted Churchill’s arch-enemy Adolf Hitler – but complied in the end.
He did, however, smoke out the window of the venue as an act of defiance.
Moves to create the loophole in Northern Ireland took a step forward this week when a meeting of the Executive passed the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Order.
One of the wide-ranging options included in the document, which will now be put before the Assembly for approval, was to amend the law “to make provision for those taking part in performances, so as to permit smoking by such performers if artistic integrity so requires”.
Mr McGimpsey said political correctness could “sometimes be taken a bit far”.
“Are we next going to find ourselves censoring old James Bond movies that feature Sean Connery smoking a cigarette?” he said.
“As a former culture and arts minister, I’m aware of the importance of protecting artistic integrity.
“It’s hard to imagine the production of an Oscar Wilde or Noel Coward play that can’t feature characters with long cigarette holders, or something on Winston Churchill that isn’t allowed to use a cigar.”
But even if it’s rubber-stamped by the Assembly, the move will come too late for Dancing at Lughnasa, which starts on Thursday.
The play, which centres on five sisters living in remote Donegal in the 30s, includes two scenes where one of the sisters smokes a cigarette.
In the 30s, women smoking was a sign of liberation and producers felt these scenes were an integral part of the play.
Smoking ban has thespian impact?
May 22, 2007
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The smoking ban has posed a conundrum for theatre producers
Northern Ireland’s smoking ban has had an unexpected impact on a Belfast production of a classic play.
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The smoking ban has posed a conundrum for theatre producers
Northern Ireland’s smoking ban has had an unexpected impact on a Belfast production of a classic play.
The Lyric Theatre has asked playwright Brian Friel to redo stage directions for two scenes in Dancing at Lughnasa, when a cigarette is smoked on stage.
The play, which centres on five sisters living in remote Donegal in the 30s, includes two scenes where one of the sisters, Maggie, smokes a cigarette.
In the 30s, women smoking had a certain frisson of liberation and big city cosmopolitanism so producers felt these scenes were an integral part of the play.
In the Republic of Ireland, where a smoking ban has been in force for two years now, the use of herbal cigarettes, which do not contain nicotine, is permitted.
Amendment
However, producers said the Smoking (Northern Ireland) Order takes a stricter line with the words “smoking any other substance” banning any lighting up on stage.
Director Mick Gordon experimented with a magician’s cigarette and producers hoped for an amendment to the Order, which would exempt performers as is the case in the proposed legislation for the smoking ban in England.
However, since a formal amendment by the Northern Ireland Assembly would take some time – and since the play begins on 1 June – they asked the author for advice.
Mr Friel had already come across a related problem in a recent production of another of his plays – Faith Healer – in Newhaven, USA, where a prolonged smoking scene saw a partial audience walk-out.
He has now sent the producers in Belfast a revised set of stage instructions for the two scenes.
The producers would not comment on the exact changes except to say that a packet of cigarettes still features in the list of props and the theatre will comply with the letter of the law.
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