The Lion in Winter
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Review of The Lion in Winter
Family feud makes for interesting 'Winter'

reviewed by Hedy Weiss
Chicago Sun-Times
10/7/2003

It's just your average upper-class family. Dad, King Henry II of England (Henry Plantagenet to his friends), has been on the throne since age 21 — a great power broker and well-documented womanizer to boot. Mom, a great beauty and adventurer known as Eleanor of Aquitaine — and the most powerful woman in 12th century Europe — is 11 years older than Dad, but she brought one of the richest regions of France to the marriage. (She had been married before, to the French king.)

Henry and Eleanor had a long and initially passionate marriage, and had eight children together, including three sons: Richard, the soldier, who happened to be homosexual; Geoffrey, the executive type, and John, the youngest and seemingly most inept, but favored by his father. Eleanor also has cared for Alais ("Alice") Capet, the pretty and perceptive young French woman who is now her husband's mistress.

The sons are grown by the time we enter all their lives in THE LION IN WINTER, James Goldman's high-spirited pop-history drama, now in a smart, sharply honed revival by the always impeccable TimeLine Theatre.

It is Christmas 1183, and the whole dysfunctional clan has gathered at the palace in Chinon, France. Henry (David Parkes) and Eleanor (Ann Wakefield) have been estranged for years, and Mom has been under house arrest for a decade. But there is the little matter of succession to be worked out so that the sons do not undermine Dad's empire with a civil war after his death.

Eleanor wants Richard (Stephen Rader) to reign, while Henry is in favor of John (Jeff Schmitt) with Geoffrey (John Luzar) as chancellor. Alais will have to marry whoever is to be king, which means Henry will have to stop sleeping with her: there are some limits.

Of course nothing works out as planned, as parents and children engage in all forms of manipulation and treachery with Alais' brother, Philip Capet (Derek Gaspar), the young and handsome king of France, also a player. Sexual jealousy and fraternal enmity combine in one very unhappy holiday get-together.

Goldman's play (the source of the memorable 1968 film with Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn) can be glib and jarringly contemporary, but of course that also is part of its charm. (You can almost hear the ad: If you think families in the 1960s are in chaos, just look at what was going on in the 12th century!) But under the asute direction of Nick Bowling, its campiness is minimized and its more poetic and insightful aspects are capitalized on.

The core of the drama is the marital rift. Parkes, an actor of wholly camouflaged technique — who has stood out in a string of different leading roles at TimeLine including HANNAH AND MARTIN, AWAKE AND SING! and THE CRUCIBLE — turns in a smart, subtle performance, suggesting a man who knows he is no longer in his sexual prime. Wakefield, an actress of great autumnal beauty, suggests a woman of many (but fading) wiles who knows she must now use her shrewdness rather than her beauty to win. She can be caustic, but also touching as she gives herself totally to Henry in a brief moment of nostalgia and undimmed passion.

Rader's cool but fierce Richard, Luzar's deft work as the thwarted strategist Geoffrey and Schmitt's sense of the spoiled "baby" make for a good fraternal stew. Gaspar is exceptionally good as the cunning young Frenchman. And Corryn Cummins is alluring (if occasionally too soft-spoken) as Alais.

Kevin Hagen's burnished and beautiful cross-shaped set places the audience in each corner of the stage, and his work is enhanced by Nicole Rene Burchfield's lushly textured and suggestive costumes.