All These Years I've Been A Gifted Method Actor

"It's turned into the most fun thing I can imagine," said Lisa Anderson, owner of a bar in Hall City. This is pure, innovative genius and also, reportedly, profitable. Naturally, culture-hating health gauleiters are not smiling and are very angry with the naughty people involved:

Bars in Minnesota have found a dramatic way to get around the US state's recently introduced smoking ban. The law grants an exception from the ban to performers in theatrical productions. So the bars have become theatres, and their customers, actors. Now some bars print bills listing the "cast" of bartenders, and ashtrays become "props". Drinkers don costumes and attempt strange accents.

At the Rock, a heavy-metal bar in Maplewood, owner Brian Bauman explained why his clientele were doing little more than sitting around, smoking and drinking to a soundtrack of deafening music. "They're playing themselves before 1 October - you know, before there was a smoking ban," he said.

But the state's health department says they are indeed breaking the law, and has threatened to hit them with fines of up to $10,000 (£5,000).

With our own drama luvvies in crisis following the dismissal of noted acting teacher Aubrey Mellor, now might be the time to go Minnesota and appoint a talented pub regular to the position immediately.