Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Alerts | Electronic edition | Advertise | Subscribe to the paper | Today's Extras

Breaking News:

Subscribe

Banter flies in brisk, polished 'Winter'

By Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 11, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

Text size  

More Theater

More stories »

When Henry II says, "My house is full of intellectual activity," he isn't kidding.

There's plenty of court intrigue in The Lion in Winter, but what really shines in the Denver Victorian Playhouse production is the sparkling banter that races across the stage.

Rick Bernstein, the man behind Miners Alley Playhouse, directs a polished, zippy production here, staged to seem natural while maintaining the ebbs and flows of this talkfest.

James Goldman's 1966 play drew on a great deal of history to imagine Christmas 1183 in the Plantagenet household. Henry, moving from middle age toward later years, owned England, Ireland and half of France, partly because of his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine. Their three surviving sons were fighting to succeed him, and Eleanor, who previously had connived to unseat her husband, was spending most of her days imprisoned.

This is a play all about language, and the Vic fulfills its promise. Wisely, Bernstein abandons attempts at English accents (which would have sounded different 900 years ago anyway), which allows the actors to focus on character, and the audience to focus on them.

Wade P. Wood brings a bearish, twinkling Henry, whose rage is scary but whose appetite for gamesmanship is delightful. He's charming and confident and, facing aging, wants to hang on to the peace he has earned his country - except for the battles he enjoys with his wife.

Jan Cleveland's Eleanor is in every way (except birthright) his equal. She has a pragmatic, amused view of her lot in life. Cleveland avoids falling into an imitation of Katharine Hepburn, who won an Oscar for the film role. If anyone - and perhaps it's because of the week just passed - she calls to mind Hillary Clinton as a woman who is hated for her toughness and doubted when she shows vulnerability.

Eleanor must suffer through the constant presence of her husband's current mistress, Alais, who in Heather Kaloust's portrayal is young and pretty but still smart and well aware of the events around her.

Henry and Eleanor's three sons are physically and temperamentally distinct, with the exception of their whining petulance over land. Richard the warrior prince is given a nearly feral intensity by Nathan Bock, while Seth Maisel's John is a clumsy, ignorant teen. In the middle stands Geoffrey, played by Christian Mast with a cool intelligence.

There's a guest in the house in the form of the young King Phillip of France, whose allegiance is being courted by Henry, as well as his sons. The script and history suggest that Phillip had affairs with men, but Ryan Everett Howard leans too far to the fey.

Sarah Roshan has designed a versatile stone castle for the small stage, and Susan Lyles' costumes are appropriate to the period and the station. They remind us that this is Crusades England, marked less by ceremony than by brutality, both abroad and within the home.

bornsteinl@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5101

The Lion in Winter

* Grade: A-

* When and where: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 9, Denver Victorian Playhouse, 4201 Hooker St.

* Cost: $20 to $22

* Information: 303-433-4343

Post your comment

Registration is required. Click here to create your free user account, or login below.

Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.




(Forgotten your password?)




News Tip

Know about something we should be reporting? Tell us about it.

Sponsored links



Reprints