The Scottish Play

Before I saw Roman Polanski's Macbeth, I was not a fan of Shakespeare. I had studied his stuff in high school, and disliked it. But Macbeth completely converted me.

I finally realize why. Macbeth is the only Shakespeare play that is not commonly performed in an Oxford or RP accent.

To a colonial boy of Irish Catholic extraction, an educated English upper class accent always rubbed the wrong way. Still does. Not just foreign and of the wrong class; but effete, girlish, umanly, embarrassing. Yuck.

The worst of it was the prancing fools and Pucks, so commonly done in a falsetto.

But I don't think it was just a case of being a Canadian. I think it was also a case of loving language. It is simply so that modern RP is antithetical to Shakespeare's use of language. RP wants precision above all. It dislikes stress and emotion. Shakespeare is inventive and emotional.

The best accent in which to perform Shakespeare is surely the accent of Southern Ireland. But, failing that, a Scots accent is far better than an English one.

I wonder how many millions have been turned off Shakespeare forever, as I might easily have been, by his co-option by the Oxbridge set.