EnglishTo smoke, or not to smoke…
A single "Anti-smoking Nazi" forces a change to the script.
Italy: a stunned Italian actor had to stub out the cigarette he had lit up on stage after a spectator complained, forcing the theater to change the script of an Arthur Miller play to make it smoke-free.
The lady-fustigator was sitting in the second row of the parterre at the Teatro Toniolo of Mestre ( Venice ), when at a certain point, she addressed the actor on the stage who - following the script - was holding a cigarette between his lips.
"Put out that cigarettes", shouted the woman, totally insensitive to the requirements of the performance.
In Mestre, on November 13th 2005 , the calloused enemies of the cigarette scored a memorable victory.
This champion of the anti-smoking decree, wanted and introduced by the Italian ex-Minister of Health, Girolamo Sirchia, was a woman spectator in the theatre, whose anti-tobacco fervour forced the hapless actor to put out the cigarette he was smoking on the stage, and the entire performing company had to hurriedly modify the layout of the play.
The artist, embarrassed, interrupted the show and called for a 15-minute break; when the performance started again, the script had been changed so that the protagonist no longer smoked and the woman in the audience could be contented in her requests.
The play being performed was "Uno Sguardo dal Ponte" (A View from the Bridge) by Arthur Miller, interpreted in the role of protagonists by Sebastiano Lo Monaco, who still finds what happened hard to believe: "In over 300 performances - Lo Monaco explained at the end of the show - nothing like this has ever happened".
The managers of the theatre were also puzzled; they pointed out that the smoking prohibition in the hall was meant for the spectators and certainly not for the actors. Moreover, a theatre, generally, is not a small space and half a cigarette could certainly not be considered a danger to health.
So, why should Arthur Miller have to bow his head before the wishes of a spectator, suffering perhaps from arteriosclerosis or some psychic problem? Will "A View from the Bridge" be permanently censured or not?
However, it could be just as if the whole thing was staged by Toniolo's managers in Mestre in order to draw attention to their theatre worldwide. And this could have worked: they managed to make press agencies speak about it all around the world. We hope so!
The government will raise the taxes on cigarettes, they will show us and tell us of all the bad things smoking does, yet they will not make it illegal. They make it as hard as possible to smoke, yet as long as they make money, they are ok with it.
Drinking is worse then smoking, I believe. You can drive while smoking, you can't drink while driving. They will sell ice cold beer in gas stations, to buy while you fill your tank! It's all about money and a hypocritical government.