Review: In ‘The Lion in Winter’ at Court Theatre, an old play is on the prowl again
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For a devastating portrait of what we now euphemistically call middle age, head down to Court Theatre and see “The Lion in Winter,” a cheerfully anachronistic play famously made into a film starring Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole and once aptly described as a 12th century version of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
It has been a hot minute since I reviewed James Goldman’s juicy 1966 historical drama about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine and the couple’s trio of annoying sons, all of whom want to inherit Daddy’s throne. (That’s not to mention their interest in Alais, the youthful half-sister of King Philip II of France and, at rise, their father’s pliant mistress.) More precisely, it’s been 15 years since a lively production at Writers Theatre in Glencoe, starring the real-life married couple of Michael Canavan and Shannon Cochran.
Frankly, I’d forgotten how much talk there is in this script about aching bones, the imminence of one’s funeral, the creaking limbs, the shriveled or sagging nature of this, that and the other.
And how old, exactly, is the titular lion in winter? About 50.
Jeez. Death’s door? One can be grateful not to have lived in the 12th century. Or, frankly, to have grown old in 1966.
“The Lion in Winter” is the latest production at Court Theatre from the fine director Ron OJ Parson, whose productions I typically enjoy thanks to their pacing and strong point of view. Neither of those is fully in ascendence here, which leads one to wonder about this particular choice of programming, which is hardly a great literary masterpiece nor anything au courant. It’s a known title, I suppose, but I’d expected Parson either to mix things up a bit more, or subvert the assumptions or move everything along a bit faster. In fact, this is a pretty straight-up production staged in a theater a bit too large for boudoir intimacy (the set is a tad chilly, too) and with a few transitions that are sufficiently lengthy as to make you worry that Henry might kick off before the next scene.
There’s only one reason to go and see this old dog: The fun of the acting.
You get John Hoogenakker as Henry, all cynical and weary. At one moment, his personality seems to disappear beneath his eyebrows, only for him to rise up like a prematurely aged King Lear. And then there’s Rebecca Spence, Chicago’s premiere interpreter (for my money, anyway) of heightened, poetic drama with attitude. Wry, droll and always additive of intelligence to any fictional character, Spence is a sophisticated dispenser of words. She’s very capable of what you might call the classic Hollywood style, which happens to be a good match for this particular play. You’ll have a good time watching what these two do, as ably supported by Kenneth La’Ron Hamilton, Shane Kenyon (a most lively and pugnacious Richard), Brandon Miller, Anthony Baldasare and the very game Netta Walker, who makes far more of Alais than did Goldman.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “The Lion in Winter” (2.5 stars)
When: Through Dec. 3
Where: Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave.
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Tickets: $40-$88 at 773-753-4472 and www.courtheatre.org
