To Smoke or Not to Smoke?

AP is set very much in 1977 and as a result of this all the characters smoke (some quite heavily!). There has been much debate about whether smoking should be allowed on stage, so to clarify the matter I contacted Murray Lynch who is a director at PlayMarket. His answer is below...

Hi Mark

I was involved in lobbying the Health Minister when the smokefree legislation went through parliament. All of the professional theatre companies lobbied the minister but to no avail. There are exemptions to laws like these for stage overseas but we failed to get it here. A fine of up to $4,000 will be put on any management allowing smoking in their premises. Film and television get away with it because their premises are closed work spaces without public and they are all contract workers. The law explicitly forbids herbal cigarettes as well. Most theatre companies fake it by not actually lighting the cigarettes. What has been adopted by others is some form of electronic cigarettes which produce a puff of smoke. I do not know where to source these.

http://www.moh.govt.nz/smokefreelaw

Have fun with Abigail's Party. Terrific play.

Kind regards

MURRAY LYNCH | DIRECTOR