Monday, June 12 2006
HE MAY have saved the country from Nazi occupation but even Winston
Churchill is not exempt from the tentacles of political correctness.
Because of the ban on smoking in public places, Britain's greatest wartime prime minister will be without his trademark cigar when he is portrayed on stage at the Edinburgh Fringe festival later this year.
Mel Smith, the comedian and actor who will play him in a production of Allegiance, a play about a little-known meeting between Churchill and Michael Collins, the Irish revolutionary, could be forced to use a plastic replacement.
Producers believe Churchill's lit cigar and the cloud of smoke which permanently surrounded him are so integral to his character that they plan to appeal to the Scottish executive for a special dispensation.
Frequent references to Churchill's famous habit have been included in the script by Mary Kenny, about the bond that developed when the two men stayed up drinking until sunrise to thrash out the agreement. She has also stayed true to history by portraying Collins as a chain smoker of cigarettes.
Churchill, who favoured Havanas and kept a room next to his office at his country home in Kent stocked with up to 4,000 cigars, was rarely seen without one. Ash often dripped onto his clothes as he smoked, his cigar wedged firmly between his teeth.
"He was a serial cigar smoker and it is known that he is always puffing. It is very hard to simulate smoking," said Brian Gilbert, director of the play. "I don't know what we are going to do. It's a real poser."
"This is a personal meeting. It was a real attempt to forge a relationship and that is where these personal habits - such as smoking and drinking - are so important to give the sense that barriers are being broken down.
"I do think that the ban is ridiculous. It's staggering that it won't be allowed on stage."
In one scene Churchill attempts to make peace with Collins by offering him a cigar, but he decides to stick to his Woodbines. Many other scenes call for dramatic pauses, broken by the strike of a match as one of the men lights up.
William Burdett-Coutts, director of the Assembly Rooms where the play will be staged, said he will approach the executive next week to appeal to them to reconsider introducing an exemption for stage and screen.
As a result of protests from actors and directors, the Westminster government is expected to grant such an exemption when the ban is implemented south of the border.
"It is just crazy. How can one portray Winston Churchill without the cigars?" said Coutts. "I think it's a rule gone too far. There should definitely be an exemption made. It seems to me that maybe the people behind this are not theatregoers or if they are they have just not thought through the real implications of it."
Robert Hardy, who played Churchill in The Wilderness Years and War and Remembrance and on stage in musicals such as Winnie, said: "I do think that if I was asked to [play Churchill] in a place where I wasnt allowed to smoke, then I should just walk to the door.
"I've done it so often with a lit cigar because, of course, he always had a lit cigar. Whoever you play, if they are a real person you look for the things they did, try and look as like as them as you can, and cloth yourself in their mannerisms. It helps persuade the public who watch you the person you are playing."
Nigel Knocker, chairman of the International Churchill Society said: "Churchill was a cigar smoker and it would be very silly if he wasn't allowed to smoke in this production. Cigars became synonomous with him."
A spokeswoman for the Scottish executive said: "We have made it clear that if smoking requires to be represented in film, TV and theatre performances, realistic alternatives can be used or developed, if the industry feels they are not suitable."
Source: Karin Goodwin in The Sunday Times of London (June 11, 2006)
