Interview: Lion in Winter

So Katie, why Lion in Winter? Katie: It’s funny, it’s dark and it’s sad. The wit is biting, and watching the fading years of one of the most powerful couples […]


So Katie, why Lion in Winter?

Katie: It’s funny, it’s dark and it’s sad. The wit is biting, and watching the fading years of one of the most powerful couples in European history is something that’s wonderful to watch. Also, I love love love the Plantagenets, the royal family that Henry’s mother and father founded. They were so influential and their story is really interesting.

Have you seen a production of it before, and have you been trying to take a different approach?

Laura: No, we were forbidden to watch the movie by our tyrannical production team.

Cara: Having seen the recent production in London with Joanna Lumley as Eleanor of Aquitaine, it has of course become an ambition of mine to morph into Lumley. Despite this, I am endeavouring not to simply replicate her performance, as: 1) It would be slightly pointless – she is Joanna Lumley, and 2) It seems a bit like cheating.

Chris: I hadn’t heard of the play before auditions, but everyone knows the legends surrounding the early Plantagenets, which makes for interesting character development. I for instance, playing Richard Coeur de Lion, recently underwent surgery to have a mane grafted to my face, and replace my puny human heart with a lion’s.

That’s impressive dedication… But what do you think this twentieth-century play about the twelfth century has to say about our times, (if anything)?

Katie: Hopefully what we’ve accomplished by the end of the play is to show the humanity and the universality of certain things- fear of death, fear of being unloved and dying alone surrounded by your cats, etc.

Cara: In the words of Eleanor: ‘What family doesn’t have its ups and downs?’

Chris: War remains universal, and the source text makes a series of spartanly, lightning insightful comments to this vein. Humans remain a vexing universal through history; it’s kinda nice to think of them being as sassy, vulnerable, and just plain full-of-folly as we are.

Calder: I’m hungry. I bet they were also hungry in the thirteenth century. So there’s a connection right there. I bet they were hungry for different things, though, unless they had Oreos back then…

Why should we go and see Lion in Winter, (instead of lie in in late autumn)?

Alex: People should see the play instead of lying in because it’s on at 7:30 PM and if anyone lies in that late they probably have a serious illness.

(Fair.)

Katie: You should come see it because it has an especially scandalous scene (or rather, multiple) in front of a real altar! Who doesn’t love a bit of sacrilege? After our show, Hair will be the least scandalous show this semester…

Lachlan: This play is like Game of Thrones, except the weddings are happier.

Chris: Come because several kings do command it (and our fantastically scary producer, whose rule remains more iron than a feudal lord’s); stay for the beautiful venue, the fine acting & the brilliant production.

Lewis: I second what Alex said. Either see a doctor or see this play.

Catch Lion in Winter at the St Andrews Episcopal Church, Thursday 29th and Friday 30th of November at 7.30pm – it promises to be a roaring success.