ABSTRACT
I am not in the giving vein today. Or, as Sir Ian McKellen as Richard III puts it: “Eeey em nawt een thah geeving veyun todayah.” Ah, the common language that divides us—again! But it’s never divided us quite as much as Mr. McKellen’s aristocratic English accent in Richard III (by Willem Shakespeah). Therein lies but one of the major problems of the Royal National Theatre’s ballyhooed production, which is the setback of being unable to understand what is actually said, or wort eez sayud.
