We’ve had lots of opinions about smoking on stage since we ran in to some trouble trying to get a production of This is Our Youth up. Smoking (albeit not cigarette smoking) is obviously a fundamental part of the movement of the play, and when the theater told us (post contract signing!) absolutely no smoking was allowed, under any circumstance, you should have seen us scrambling to create bongs that used electronic cigarettes. The office looked like a meth lab.
We ended up unable to do the show anyway for other reasons, but I know I’ve been a pretty obnoxious advocate for smoking on stage since. In my opinion, TIOY can not work without smoking, and if there’s one example, there are a thousand.
That said, Matt Trueman makes a really strong argument here in The Guardian, which comes down to one point he makes:
A real cigarette lit on stage will put any smokers in the auditorium on nicotine alert. If the cigarettes are fake or herbal, the ghastly, faintly fishy smell instantly undermines the fiction. In either case, a cigarette makes the audience remember itself.
(italics mine)
What do you guys think?
