SMOKING IN THEATRES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 439, 3 December 1930, Page 6

SMOKING IN THEATRES

THE Lord Chamberlain has put a ban upon smoking in London 1 theatres, and this action has called forth much protest. Has the Lord Chamberlain’s action the sanction of public opinion? If it has not, it ought to have. People go to the theatre to listen to a play. Actors cannot speak well in a tobacco-smoke charged atmosphere. Their efforts would be handicapped. So much for.artistic considerations; let us now consider more practical matters. The possibility of an outbreak of fire cannot be lessened when many people are smoking and should a fire break out then the prospect of considerable loss of life must be contemplated. Socially, however, the demand to be allowed to smoke during a theatre performance indicates a lack of ability to concentrate or be entertained without the stimulus of the weed. Is it not a mark of modern decadence that the smoking habit so dominates people that they eannot refrain from it for a space of an hour or so? The foregoing leaves out consideration for the non-smoker, a not inconsiderable number nowadays. Some men are said to have given up smoking because it has become such an effeminate habit —but that is another matter.