MAPLEWOOD, Minn. - All the world's a stage at some of Minnesota's bars. A new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an exception for performers in theatrical productions. So some bars are getting around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them "actors."
The customers are playing right along, merrily puffing away — and sometimes speaking in funny accents and doing a little improvisation, too.
The state Health Department is threatening to bring the curtain down on these sham productions. But for now, it's on with the show.
That's not as innovative and clever as you might think. Between the lies men tell to impress each other and the lies men and women on the prowl tell each other, bars have always been a hotbet of theatrical energy. My favorite act is the one by the two people from the office, whom everyone has seen whispering to each other by the coffee machine, sitting across each other at the bar table, leaning on their elbows and pretending their legs aren't touching.
A hint for you: Just because you're drinking, that doesn't mean the rest of us get blind and stupid.
