RP, the classics, and verse

It’s now becoming much more common for productions of the classics to be staged in accents other than RP – Northern Broadsides did much to pioneer this but they are not now alone.

This provides exciting opportunities for actors and can bring the plays to life in surprising new ways.   The rhythms and cadences of Shakespeare and others can inter-play fascinatingly with a variety of accents.  This is liberating if you want to work in the classics but feel shaky on your RP.

Some people have difficulties approaching playing Shakespeare and the other Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists because they feel the verse form as a sort of straight-jacket, interfering with their creativity and power of characterisation.

However, if you look at the verse form as a set of keys, opening creative doors, then whole worlds open up, and you find in your speech the real energy that comes from the verbal extravagance and range of the text.

“I have to say that our lesson was one of the most inspiring classes I’ve ever attended” – Actors Centre member.


It’s now becoming much more common for productions of the classics to be staged in accents other than RP