Writing an Accent

I recently finished re-reading Desire Under the Elms and was annoyed again by the fact that it was written to phonetically show the accent. This annoys me in plays, but not in a novel or other fiction. I guess I don't mind if a few words are written to give a specific direction for the actor, but when the whole text is littered with apostrophes and different vowels than should be in the word it becomes difficult to read. I almost have to read it out loud to make it work. Maybe there is an acting version of the play written without the accent.

If it is so important how about a preface with a guide to the important accent issues? Something like a map legend, except a legend to common words and important words in the text, and how the author wants them to be pronounced.

• "yew" = "you"
• "calc’late" = "calculate"
• "tuk" = "took"
• and so on...

Is that so unreasonable?