The Queen’s Players, a local theater troupe, is bringing a free staged reading of “The Lion in Winter” to Saint Matthew’s Cathedral this Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m.
“The Lion in Winter,” a 1966 play by James Goldman, depicts the interpersonal and political conflicts of King Henry II of England and his family that have all gathered in France for Christmas. It deals with competing power plays within this family as a new heir to the throne is being decided on, major sources of tension in many of these verbal sparring being the queen’s unorthodox imprisonment and the concealed homosexuality in Henry’s eldest son Richard the Lionheart.
Producer Amy Hollon and director James Hockberry have both expressed their excitement over presenting this play to the Laramie community and the twists they plan on including with this particular show. Their performance of “The Lion in Winter” is being funded by the Humanities Council so they plan to include a talk-back section, allowing the community to converse with the cast and crew directly.
“The Humanities aren’t about the creation of a work; they are about how that work affects the community, so we’re going to focus heavily on the first act so we then give the chance to the audience to be a part of the talk-back,” Holland said. “’What are they taking from this play, was it simply Richard coming out, was it people never really change even a thousand years later?’ It’s that interaction that happens with the audience later that’s going to be a little more exciting.”
On the use of location for the performance, Hockberry spoke enthusiastically about being able to perform a work like this in a location that holds a lot of history with some of the play’s more controversial themes.
“It’s applicability to space happens on several levels. One is just the history and grandeur of the space,” Hockberry said. “The connection between the Church and monarchy is long well-established, but more than that because one of the themes of the play is Richard’s conflict with sexuality and how that is being discussed in our society in the religious context it was really remarkable that the church was so willing to have that conversation, they’ve been tremendously helpful.”
The play itself is almost entirely fictional and not based on true events. Goldman wrote the story to be symbolic of his own family life, the struggle he had with coming out to his family, and the nearly universal drama that will inevitably entrap all families at Christmas time. The play is best remembered for the 1968 Academy Award-winning film adaptation starring Peter O’Toole as King Henry and Katharine Hepburne as his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine.
