Early Modern English version of R&J

[Laurence Horn]

This looks pretty interesting, including the extensive role of David
Crystal in helping the actors get the dialect right.  Interesting too
that the actors found the EME version more user-friendly than the
more familiar Royal Academy-taught RP.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/23/arts/23note.html

... The ever-venturesome Shakespeare's Globe, whose very architecture
is an act of historicism, staged three performances in late June of
"Romeo and Juliet" in original Elizabethan pronunciation, or Early
Modern English...
...

Some vowels sound very different: my and thy become me and thee;
tion, as in commotion, becomes commo-see-on; hour sounds like oar -
or whore, which made one of Shakespeare's puns suddenly make sense.
When Mr. Crystal ripped off a few lines over the telephone, the
language was a little more difficult to understand, but even more
flavorful. As an aside, the experience apparently made Shakespeare
more accessible to young people who found the Royal Academy accent
too posh.

For the actors, the informality and casualness of the language
inspired performances that were looser, fleeter, more conversational.
The original-pronunciation performances clocked in at 10 minutes less
than the same words in modern speech. For Mr. Carroll and the Globe
brain trust, this suggests a new approach to Shakespeare, less grand,
more human...



larry