Valley Center Stage ends their season with The Lion in Winter
Published 8:30 am Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Valley Center Stage will debut its final production of the 2015-16 season, “The Lion in Winter,” this Friday, May 6.
Directed by Vincent Brady, who is working with the Valley Center Stage for the first time on this production, “The Lion in Winter” is the story of King Henry II of England trying to determine his heir to the throne. Described by the cast as an interesting mix of drama and comedy, “The Lion in Winter” is really the story of a dysfunctional family.
“It mainly centers on Henry II, his wife Eleanor (who has been imprisoned for launching a revolt against her husband), the three children, his mistress, and the King of France. Henry has brought them all together for a Christmas gathering to try and work out who will inherit the kingdom from him,” Brady said.
“The important thing to realize for an audience is in these days it wasn’t automatically given to the eldest son, which is why there were so many civil wars, if there was more than one son, all the sons felt they had the right to it and started fighting amongst themselves. That’s what Henry wants to prevent in the play, the kingdom fracturing and breaking into three.”
“The Lion in Winter” is a semi-fictional story written by playwright James Goldman in 1966. All of the characters were real people but this event is purely fictional. It’s a world that seems distant and remote, but the situations the characters are dealing with and the emotions that arise are familiar to all of us, Brady said.
“Love, loss, revenge and jealousy, it’s about what they leave behind in personal sense and a regal sense. What kind of legacy we leave when we die,” he said. “It’s about two powerful people, growing old and aware of their mortality and dealing with both the surge of youth that surrounds them and the feelings about their legacy.”
During its debut in 1966, the play was not received with much praise, but all that changed once it was adapted to film in 1968. Staring Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn, the film adaptation went on to win multiple Academy Awards and skyrocketed the play’s popularity.
Brady said the success of the movie revived the play, theaters began performing it and continue to do so today.
Part of the production’s appeal is the blend of comedy and drama. Although it sounds like a straightforward historical piece, Goldman wrote the dialogue in a more contemporary and colloquial way while also emphasizing the situational humor.
“It’s basically a family that can’t stand to be in the same room as each other and [Henry] brings them all in and locks them in a castle together,” Brady said. “The comedy comes from the extreme reactions of the characters. They switch very quickly between intense feelings of affection and love for each other and intense feelings of hate, irritation and anger. While its not zingers and one-liners, it’s comic because of the extreme situations.”
“The Lion in Winter” opens at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 6 at the Valley Center Stage in North Bend and runs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the first three weeks of May. For more information including additonal times and dates, visit valleycenterstage.org.
