The "Tobacco Troupe," after some rave reviews from small-town bar owners, has decided it's ready for the big time.
"If you want to start listing cities where this is going to happen, you're going to run out of space," said Mark Benjamin, the Renaissance Festival enthusiast and lawyer who cooked up a theatrical loophole to Minnesota's smoking ban.
Like many good plays, the plot in Benjamin's increasingly popular plays is simple and direct: Bar patrons light up. They aren't required to speak, gesture or — for the most part — dress up.
"They're required to dress as they did before the ban," said Brian Bauman, owner of the Rock Nightclub in Maplewood, which allowed its patrons to be part of Tuesday's production of "Before the Ban."
"It's a period piece," Benjamin said.
Styles haven't changed much: The statewide ban, which prohibits smoking in bars and restaurants, went into effect in October. Also included in the ban's final version was a provision allowing smoking as part of a theatrical production.
Left out was what, exactly, a "theatrical production" was.
(Yes, while smoking is a disgusting, vile, unhealthy habit, a little Libertarian voice in my head is railing against the fact that market forces couldn't have been relied upon to take care of the bar/restaurant situation and MN had to legislate a ban throughout the state.)
Hat Tip to Jenni who noticed this article
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