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Complicated ‘Lion’ is entertaining
By Stephanie Ottey
Youngstown
“The Lion in Winter” has quietly lived in the theater world without much attention for nearly 50 years. Though Rosemary Harris won a Tony Award for her performance in the original Broadway cast, and the movie adaptation featured stars such as Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole, the title doesn’t resonate with audiences as some do. Still, the Victorian Players have chosen to feature the play this season.
The unique play by James Goldman opened Friday to an unusually small audience. Set in 1183 in Europe, “The Lion in Winter” is based loosely on the life of King Henry II as he tries to choose a successor. Having been written in the middle of the 20th century, the script has a contemporary vocabulary and one-line zingers that rival more modern plays in boldness, but the plot is so wildly woven that it is difficult to keep things straight.
At first, the exposition is rather clearly explained. We know that Henry is very unhappily married to Eleanor and that Alais is his mistress. It also is known that Henry and Eleanor have three sons who are all vying for the future crown.
As soon as these conclusions are reached things get complicated. We learn that King Henry has made a deal with Phillip the King of France to marry Alais to his heir, that Eleanor knows of her husband’s mistress and is set to torture him for his infidelity, and that the brothers are bitter with a lack of affection from their parents. With all parties greedy to control the kingdom, they spin webs of lies and manipulations to get what they want. It quickly becomes impossible to determine which statements are true and which are falsehoods, and by the end of Act 1, it’s hard to comprehend what is really going on.
Nonetheless, director Sam Luptak Jr. has cast an expert panel of actors to bring this complicated story to life. Though the plot is complex, each actor plays with such clarity on stage that it’s easy to understand individual characters.
Terry Shears and Molly Galano are a marvelously twisted and tortured duo as Henry and Eleanor. The emotional roller coaster they traverse is wildly entertaining, and surprisingly sympathetic.
Craig Conrad, Eric Kibler, and Hunter Thomas illustrate all shades of envy and resentment as brothers Geoffrey, Richard and John.
Liz Conrad is achingly sensitive and feminine as Alais in a moving performance, and Matthew Schomer plays her eccentric brother, Phillip. Some severe dialect differences make it unclear that these two are siblings at first, but the dialogue reveals them to be so.
The production features a very tasteful lighting design by J.E. Ballantyne Jr., who utilizes some special lighting maneuvers to create simple yet attention-grabbing moments on stage. He intelligently chooses to light the crew in a dim blue so that they can move on stage in the darkness, allowing the audience to appreciate the organizational work of stage manager Gerri Jenkins. The scene changes are smooth and fast — almost as entertaining to watch as the play itself. Despite the cloudy twists and turns of the plot, “The Lion in Winter” is a well-rounded production.
“The Lion in Winter” runs through June 24 at the Victorian Players Theater at 702 Mahoning Ave., Youngstown. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. For more information, call 330-746-5455.