Globe Gets to Grips with Bard Pronunciation???

An interesting experiment this weekend at Shakespeare’s Globe. Performances tonight, Saturday and Sunday of Romeo and Juliet will be performed in “original pronunciation”, ie the way audiences might have heard Shakespeare’s words at the time they were written more than 400 years ago. You’ve been warned! And speaking of interesting experiments at the Globe, last weekend Whatsonstage.com caught one of the Read Not Dead staged readings at the theatre’s Education Centre. What a treat! The series seeks to rescue plays from oblivion and, since its start, has performed more than 100 ‘lost’ plays. While Edward Sharpham’s 1606 farce The Fleer may not warrant a full production, it received a zesty run-through at last Sunday’s reading, directed by actor Tony Bell. And the quality cast alone – which included David Tennant, Alan Cox, Barnaby Kay Geoffrey Freshwater and Claire Price, all donating their time – was certainly worth the cost of the £10 ticket. The series continues this summer with William Davenant’s The Unfortunate Lovers on 18 July and James Shirley’s Hyde Park on 8 August.

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