"As I know you know, the practice was common at that time. We see it in Shaw and O'Neill (first two to come to mind). It's now out of fashion to do it for various reasons. If I didn't know that Lynn Riggs was writing about people he knew where he grew up, I'd probably find it pretty silly and perhaps condescending, but we know he didn't mean it that way. Just a guide for actors. I do think if we heard someone today try to really do those all just as he wrote them, it would sound very odd and probably phony, even if it was actually pretty accurate."
I agree with all of that. I don't know Shaw all that well, especially in script form. But I do know that, in PYGMALION, he writes Eliza's first few speeches in the matter described here, with the spelling reflecting the pronunciation, but then, in the stage directions, he writes something like, "Now this method will be abandoned as incomprehensible to anyone who lives outside of London." |
