To smoke on stage or not to smoke

Let me make it very clear first. I used to be a very heavy smoker. I smoked at least two packs of cigarettes a day, on top of enjoying quite a few pipefuls of tobacco, while I was working as managing editor of The China Post. I also smoked cigars my friends gave me as presents. Well, that's more than half a century ago. I quit smoking after I had a heart attack at London's Regent Park in 1988. I've been a teetotaler since. But from time to time, I would dream I was smoking. That means subconsciously I wanted to smoke a cigarette or two. As a former heavy smoker, I'm never against smoking.

Life is short and work is long. And everybody has the right to enjoy himself while he can to forget his miserable life of a work ant, be it smoking or drinking or anything else, so long as it doesn't cause someone else trouble. That's why a theatergoer in Taipei, bothered by cigarette smoking on stage at the National Theater in the heart of our not-so-beloved city, filed a complaint with our municipal health bureau more than four months ago. Oscar Wilde's “The Importance of Being Earnest” was staged at the National Theater from May 24 to 27. There was a scene in which Jack Worthing smoked cigarettes, and one offended viewer recalled that a theater is supposed to be free of smokers and sent a letter of complaint to the health bureau, accusing the protagonist on stage of breaking the smoking ban, a misdemeanor that is punishable by a fine.

On complaint, a good Jack in the office took a retarded action threatening to write a ticket and asking the National Theater to produce evidence against the actor who played Jack Worthing. The letter requesting evidence was sent on June 11. P. T. Huang, director-general of arts at the National Theater, snapped back, refusing to produce any evidence for reasons that the smoking ban in public places like theaters isn't applicable on stage. She retorted that the ban, which is in force at the theater, can't be enforced on stage where performing arts are forever.

She must be right, for the good Jack in the office relented and didn't send a ticket to the actor. Nevertheless, an official letter was forwarded to the National Theater on Sept. 11 with a demand that no one be allowed to smoke on stage and the theater authorities see to it that the smoking ban is strictly enforced everywhere within its domain. Moreover, they were asked to help give publicity to the smoking ban. Smoking is harmful of course, both to smokers and the non-smokers nearby. But, the offended theatergoer seems to have overreacted.

I didn't ask my doctor friends to find out exactly how much he or she or anybody else in the audience was harmed by the tobacco smoke Jack Worthing spread out of stage but I do believe it's miniscule, to say the least. After all, cigarette fume is no nerve gas that may kill. A couple of minutes you're exposed to cigarette smoke from a smoker not in your immediate vicinity certainly won't kill you or cause cancer of the lung or, I firmly believe, harm you in any way possible.