Season 52 Play 4 – The Lion in Winter by James Goldman
Directed by
Cast
ALAIS – Liz Hall
JOHN – Matthew Bowring
GEOFFREY – Neil Bell
RICHARD LIONHEART – lan Wilkinson
ELEANOR – Janet Thomas
PHILIP – John Greenwood
Synopsis
The year is 1183. Henry Il of England and his queen, Eleanor, are spending Christmas at their castle in Chinon, France, together with their sons Richard Lionheart, Geoffrey and John, all in the prime of young manhood. This is a family of intelligent, devious, scheming and ambitious individuals whose relationships are complex and destructive. Completing the party are the young king of France and his sister Alais. All are embroiled in the struggles between Henry and Eleanor to determine who is to marry Alais, who is to have Aquitaine and who is to be the next king. The outcome is historical fact; the means of achieving it is fictional.
Directors Notes
It is Christmas time 1183, Kling Henry Il (who reigned from 154 – 1189) is at his glorious palace at Chinon, France, raging an outright war with his wite Queen Eleanor. They must establish a future King of England – a ruler who can continue the glorious thirty year reign that Henry has carved, attain the trophies of Aquitaine, and the hand of the beautiful Alais Capey. But which son, the fierce Richard the Lionheart, cunning Prince Geoffrey or innocent and hapless John?
The historical facts are well documented, but James Goldman produces a marvellous insight into the possibilities of what could have happened behind the scenes, all that time ago. The love – hate relationship between King Henry and the imprisoned Queen Eleanor generates obsessive power and loathing yet softens momentarily, as they stare into each other’s eyes and remember what had been.
The play has the theme of responsibility and desire running fiercely through it. Can a young prince cope with the power of a kingdom? would the empire crumble under an uninterested or inept king? Henry will strive to ensure it will not and has no option but to fight his clever wife Eleanor and the young French King, Philip. The battling, thinking, planning, bartering is frighteningly relevant even today, such endeavours, of course, being carried out by trained experts; today they call themselves spin-doctors, in 1183 they were glorious royals.
