Peter Hall Tells Young Actors to Stop Mumbling???

Sir Peter Hall, founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and actor Edward Fox have told younger actors under the age of 40 to speak up whilst acting on stage, as audiences are finding themselves unable to hear what’s going on. Making the comments in a speech at the opening of his Rose Theatre in Kingston upon Thames, he put the blame squarely on actors who concentrate on TV and commercials, where even the tiniest sound can be picked up by microphones, rather than improving their stage acting work. Fox agreed, and Hall’s protégé Stephen Unwin, soon to become artistic director of the Rose in April, suggested that the problem was also the fault of the UK’s playhouses, with 60% of them having “awful acoustics”.