Open Forum

This isn't about a school production, but I thought I'd ask colleagues for their thoughts.  This one's for my fellow history and language nerds!

I've been hired to direct The Lion in Winter for a community theatre.  Good relations there, incidentally - I've acted there for years, and directed my first production for them about a year ago.  Auditions are in early June, rehearsals start late July or early August, and show runs late September to early October, so I've got some time here as I prep.

I'm wondering about dialect matters for this show.

I've seen a half-dozen productions of the show over the years (and the movie version), and all of them - except for a French-language production in Montreal - used standard "R.P." dialect.  The script does repeatedly refer to Henry as the king of England.

But ... it's 1183, Henry is the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, and we're talking about characters who still would have regarded themselves as "Normans," as opposed to the sneered-upon Anglo-Saxons.  The Saxons of the time spoke a sort of early Middle English, while the Normans spoke Old French, or dialects of it.  The play takes place in Chinon, located in what is today west-central France.  Neither Henry nor Richard ever spent much time in England.  The historical record indicates that Henry could understand English when it was spoken to him, but that he himself only spoke French and Latin.  Eleanor spoke French, Latin, and the Occitan dialect.  Philip and Alais would have been native French speakers.  Richard spoke mostly French.  Geoffrey, who seems to have been the linguist of the group, spoke French, Latin, several French dialects, and possibly some English.  John spoke French, Latin, and eventually some English, but I don't know that he had a handle on it at the time of the play's setting.

So these characters wouldn't have been speaking anything like English, if this fictional Christmas court had ever taken place.  That makes me think that R.P. isn't the best choice for speech and diction in this play.  (I could go that way, if I had to - my previous production for this theatre was The Women of Lockerbie, and, with three different coaching sources, that cast nailed the Scotch burr.)

Of course, they shouldn't have French accents, either - the play is written in English, so English represents French here, and the standard line from diction coaches is that in such cases, you simply use normal, unaccented American English.  I would direct the cast to keep their speech patterns elevated, of course, to portray them as royalty - after all, every character in the play is a king, queen, prince, or princess.

But I worry about how audiences might take that.  Not everyone is up on the history here.  When they hear dialogue referring to Henry as the king of England, will they start asking why he doesn't "sound" English?  Will that become a distraction to them, hampering their potential engagement in the play?  Will they judge the production negatively, assuming that it's "wrong" for the characters not to sound English?  Could these issues create a situation where it would be better to use R.P., even though it's historically incorrect?

I've e-mailed the theatre's executive director and production manager, seeking their thoughts.  They're currently striking a show that closed this past weekend, and they have a musical in rehearsal that opens next month, so I haven't heard back from them yet, and of course I'll take their guidance - or instructions, as the case may be - into account.

But in case there's a discussion, what do my colleagues think?  If you were directing the show, would you go with modern R.P. dialects, or elevated American speech, and why?  If there are any other ideas I could/should consider, I'd love to hear them.

I was taught that you have to consider an audience "perception" of accent/dialect as opposed to the authentic thing. For example. when I was in college I played "The Russian" in A Walk in the Woods.  After a few sessions with the Russian language professor, we found that an ACTUAL Russian dialect when speaking English sounds a LOT closer to what Americans perceive as Italian. So the theatre director's choice was for me to play the "traditional" American perception. And I was complimented over and over about how "authentic" I sounded. 

One other thing to consider is the film version is Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn and Ms. Hepburn did NOT use a dialect

My choice would be to use the expected British and French IF you have actors who can do it convincingly. 

Just my two cents.

This isn't about a school production, but I thought I'd ask colleagues for their thoughts.  This one's for my fellow history and language nerds!

I've been hired to direct The Lion in Winter for a community theatre.  Good relations there, incidentally - I've acted there for years, and directed my first production for them about a year ago.  Auditions are in early June, rehearsals start late July or early August, and show runs late September to early October, so I've got some time here as I prep.

I'm wondering about dialect matters for this show.

I've seen a half-dozen productions of the show over the years (and the movie version), and all of them - except for a French-language production in Montreal - used standard "R.P." dialect.  The script does repeatedly refer to Henry as the king of England.

But ... it's 1183, Henry is the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, and we're talking about characters who still would have regarded themselves as "Normans," as opposed to the sneered-upon Anglo-Saxons.  The Saxons of the time spoke a sort of early Middle English, while the Normans spoke Old French, or dialects of it.  The play takes place in Chinon, located in what is today west-central France.  Neither Henry nor Richard ever spent much time in England.  The historical record indicates that Henry could understand English when it was spoken to him, but that he himself only spoke French and Latin.  Eleanor spoke French, Latin, and the Occitan dialect.  Philip and Alais would have been native French speakers.  Richard spoke mostly French.  Geoffrey, who seems to have been the linguist of the group, spoke French, Latin, several French dialects, and possibly some English.  John spoke French, Latin, and eventually some English, but I don't know that he had a handle on it at the time of the play's setting.

So these characters wouldn't have been speaking anything like English, if this fictional Christmas court had ever taken place.  That makes me think that R.P. isn't the best choice for speech and diction in this play.  (I could go that way, if I had to - my previous production for this theatre was The Women of Lockerbie, and, with three different coaching sources, that cast nailed the Scotch burr.)

Of course, they shouldn't have French accents, either - the play is written in English, so English represents French here, and the standard line from diction coaches is that in such cases, you simply use normal, unaccented American English.  I would direct the cast to keep their speech patterns elevated, of course, to portray them as royalty - after all, every character in the play is a king, queen, prince, or princess.

But I worry about how audiences might take that.  Not everyone is up on the history here.  When they hear dialogue referring to Henry as the king of England, will they start asking why he doesn't "sound" English?  Will that become a distraction to them, hampering their potential engagement in the play?  Will they judge the production negatively, assuming that it's "wrong" for the characters not to sound English?  Could these issues create a situation where it would be better to use R.P., even though it's historically incorrect?

I've e-mailed the theatre's executive director and production manager, seeking their thoughts.  They're currently striking a show that closed this past weekend, and they have a musical in rehearsal that opens next month, so I haven't heard back from them yet, and of course I'll take their guidance - or instructions, as the case may be - into account.

But in case there's a discussion, what do my colleagues think?  If you were directing the show, would you go with modern R.P. dialects, or elevated American speech, and why?  If there are any other ideas I could/should consider, I'd love to hear them.