Shakespeare's Accents

Abstract

Non-Standard English (henceforth NSE) accents started to feature more prominently in mainstream Shakespearean productions in the early s. Since then, more directors have curated the voice as a significant aspect of the mise-en-scène and NSE accents have no longer been systematically relegated to comic roles as the default acoustic shorthand to personate the marginal and the uneducated.The impetus towards achieving greater acoustic diversity on the Shakespearean stage is generally linked to the pioneering work by poets, artists and writers who championed the use of regional accents in mainstream theatre, film and television in the second half of the twentieth century. This chapter argues that this pioneering work with regional accents has been reinforced all along by the steady rise of foreign Shakespeare on the English stage. A closer look at the steep increase in the number of foreign productions of Shakespeare that have either toured to, or that have been produced for, the English stage has highlighted a connection between the alienating, but also liberating, experience of hearing Shakespeare performed in a foreign language and the growing acoustic diversity deployed in English productions of Shakespeare aimed at English-speaking audiences.This chapter therefore identifies and discusses the correlation between the rise of regional and foreign accents on the English stage, starting with the acerbic response prompted by the first regionally inflected voices to be heard on the Shakespearean stage in the s. This chapter then focuses on key theatrical events, including festivals and anniversary seasons within which foreign Shakespeare featured prominently, showing how these events in turn provoked debate about the need for more acoustic diversity and the deployment of regional voices on the Shakespearean stage. Specific productions are granted more sustained attention than others, which are discussed only in passing, because they exemplify more clearly the benefits 