From rep to reps: can a 'Shakespeare gym' solve the crisis in verse-speaking?
The Royal Shakespeare Company has vowed to drill the Bard's rhythms into its actors " but our alienation from his language runs deeper 'Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue." So says Hamlet to the players. But has his advice gone unheeded at a time when Shakespearean verse-speaking is widely held to be in decline? The RSC clearly thinks there is an issue as it has set up …