Craziest warning yet... Groucho play has a cigar

WITH his bushy moustache and ever-present cigar, Groucho Marx is one of the most recognisable stars in Hollywood history.

Yet in what may be the most ridiculous content warning yet, audiences at Dinner With Groucho, which has been written by Irish playwright Frank McGuinness, are being cautioned that it features a

‘prop cigar’.

The Arcola Theatre in London is sending the warning to anyone who buys tickets for the new stage play, which imagines a meeting between the Marx brother and the American writer TS Eliot. The warning states: ‘Contains use of haze and prop cigar.’ A similar notice is posted on the door of the auditorium.

Steve Bennett, editor of the comedy website Chortle, said: ‘Groucho’s cigar defined his enduring image as much as his greasepaint moustache, wiggling eyebrows and wisecracking puns. Of course a play about the comic genius was going to feature a cigar.’

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes added: ‘I simply do not understand the fashion for infantilising an audience, treating them as if they were three years old.’

And Maureen Lipman said: ‘Groucho Marx without a cigar is like a footballer without a tattoo. Where do these warnings end?’

The play was inspired by the reallife friendship between Marx, left, and Eliot.