GROUCHO’S CIGAR SPARKS WARNING
Theatre in prop and ‘smoke’ alert
WOKE theatre chiefs have put a warning on a Groucho Marx play featuring a “prop cigar” and pretend smoke.
The play imagines a meeting between the Marx brother and the American writer TS Eliot.
The warning to punters buying tickets for Dinner With Groucho states: “Content warning: Contains use of haze and prop cigar.”
The wisecracking comic, with his painted-on moustache and everpresent cigar, remains one of the most recognisable stars in Hollywood history.
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.
“So of course a play about the comic genius was going to feature a cigar. What next? A warning that a Tommy Cooper tribute act may contain fezzes? Or that a Ken Dodd impersonation may contain harrowing scenes of tickling sticks?”
Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes said it was an example of “infantilising an audience, treating them as if they were three years old.” The Arcola Theatre, London, has defended its warning, stating that it was following official guidance which “recommends that entertainment venues using smoke or haze in productions should print warnings on or with the tickets and post warning notices on the premises.”