All politics is familial: 'The Lion in Winter' commands the stage for Southbank

When monarchy was in flower,  tangles of succession disputes embroiled nations and changed history. They tended to revolve around family tension and personal ambition. James Goldman's "The Lion in Winter" scrutinizes the challenges a strong 12th-century English king faced with kinship difficulties to the point of family dysfunction and hegemonic decay. Southbank Theatre Company opened a riveting production of the play on Thursday night in Shelton Auditorium.

The language is elaborate, with many barbed, witty exchanges. Becky Schlomann has brought out of her three-dimensional cast thorough commitment to the relentless maneuverings of characters close to Henry II, who in 1183 is approaching the end of a thirty-year reign and trying to steer the way to a succession that will preserve his kingdom.

Troubles of his own making have centered on his womanizing appetites and emotional distance as a

King Henry II roars his need for control to the heavens.

family man.  The crucial liaison is his troubled marriage to Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, who has been a formidable political enemy at a time when trans-channel power politics focused on who controlled which parts of France and England. She has been brought out of imprisonment at Christmastime to negotiate dealings with three obstreperous sons. The royal couple is divided over their favorites and much else. Sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John each has his own agenda and psychological makeup.

"A little more than kin, and less than kind" Hamlet's famous first line at court, hangs like a shadow over the action and the intensifying family conflict, though the Danish prince is punning. Kindness is in short supply in King Henry's family. The dialogue bristles, sometimes tempting the cast to treat it as repartee more than revelatory self-expression. This is perhaps an unavoidable risk, given the sharp-angled eloquence of Goldman's dialogue. What is superficially verbal swordplay tumbles over into desperate attempts at self-therapy and self-justification. 

On the whole, the performance put enough pregnant pauses and awkward exchanges in the right places to avoid the feeling that "The Lion in Winter" is a kind of comedy of bad manners conducted at the highest royal level. Doug Powers conveyed believably the glamour of royalty back when it exercised overwhelming power; parliament is practically a nonentity in this story. The people who would suffer most from revived warfare count for nothing. But this King Henry came across also as a man keenly aware of his shortcomings and vulnerabilities. When he rages, much of the energy seems to emerge from a deep well of regret.

Jean Arnold (who played another troubled queen, Gertrude, in a "Hamlet" production Powers directed four

Eleanor of Aquitaine contemplates time's ravages. 

years ago) is clearly up to the mark in matching Powers' fervor and shrewdness as Henry. Eleanor, as she played the role, is clearly fixated on a relationship that has long been under spectacular strain. And she is keenly aware of her diminished status as an international beauty past her prime.

The mutually competitive ambitions of the couple's sons has the odd side benefit of reaffirming the  royal bond and the superiority the king and queen assert over their unruly offspring. The sons are vividly set forth by Thomas Sebald (Richard), Jo Bennett (Geoffrey), and Garrett Rowe (John). They are each true to form as the warrior hothead, the calculating politician, and the temperamental brat, respectively.

Filling out the cast's gifts for artfully highlighted portrayals, Kaya Dorsch plays just short of caricature the sly, manipulative French king Philip II, with Miranda A. Nehrig as Alais, Philip's hapless-then-knowing countrywoman and King Henry's long-suffering mistress.

Costuming by Marina Turner manages to stay free of both medieval literalism and a totally modern-dress look. The garb has a kind of timeless quality suitable for characters in scenes too intimate for pomp. The set design (Aric Harris) and the substantial quality of the props and furniture help place the audience in a remote time, while not overdoing a time-travel feeling that might succeed all too well in confining the action to a historical box. "The Lion in Winter" feels properly free-range in energy, expression, and pertinence to the perpetual internal warfare that threatens strong families in all eras. 

[Photos by Indy Ghost Light]