The New York Times

"On Stage:  The Battle of the Generations"

 

DEALING WITH THE PAST AT PRESENT by Stanley Kauffmann

 

Historical plays come in two kinds: those that deal chiefly with fictitious characters and those that deal chiefly with actual personages.  Modern dramatists sometimes write the first kind - as John Arden did in "Serjeant Musgrave's Dance" - to escape from the bondage of recognizable, limiting fact.  The opposite is true of the second kind of play, such as James  Goldman's "The Lion in Winter."  With allowance for dramatic license, it is in large degree bound by fact.  It does not take the present into the past; it attempts the reverse.  Or it ought to.  And it is here that Mr. Goldman's sometimes skillful play falters.

 

The attractions of his story are clear.  He is dealing with the marriage and quarrels of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.  This is that same Henry who caused Thomas Becket's death but who, as Trevelyan says, was among those English monarchs who did "great and lasting work."

 

Eleanor was a strong-minded woman who married the King of France at 15, had her marriage annulled when she was 30, and then married Henry, who was 11 years younger than herself.  No sooner had her children grown than she sided with her oldest son in a rebellion against his father; so Henry imprisoned his wife in Salisbury Castle.

 

The Plot Unfolds

It was a coiled-spring situation, as Mr. Goldman sees, particularly since the three surviving sons were vying for the succession.  The crown, in those days, did not automatically pass to the oldest son.

 

Mr. Goldman has imagined that, in 1183, Henry holds Christmas Court at Chinon.  (Henry, himself born in France, was king of more French territory than British.)  To this court come the contesting sons, and here Henry brings his aging wife because he wants to use her lands as pawns in his game.

 

To this court comes, too, young King Philip of France...(piece missing)...were once sufficient grounds for historical plays.  Even some of Shakespeare's histories are difficult to revive, such as "King John," with the older Eleanor in it.  Mr. Goldman seems to justify his play only by its cabals and its verbal rapier-play.

 

But these are insufficient.  The intrigues are not particularly subtle, and they soon fall into patterns that repeat.  As for the language, although it has some wit and some enjoyable invective, it is not resourceful enough to compensate for the repetitiousness.

 

Further, the dialogue has a heavy admixture of the modern.  At first, when we hear phrases like "You're a failure as a father" or "Don't everybody sob at once" or "Wish me luck," we tell ourselves that they represent equivalent locutions of 1183.  Soon, because of ideas as well as words, they seem out of character, mere efforts at liveliness.  After a quarrel, Queen Eleanor says, "What family doesn't have its ups and downs?"

 

The characters also tend to make epigrams at one another instead of conversing.  "Always put your trust in vices."  "In a world where carpenters get resurrected, anything is possible."  The gold of these epigrams soon becomes gilt.

 

Last, there is another question that the author did not answer adequately before he began:  whether the biographical facts, or their reasonable extension, would provide dramatic progress and conclusion.  They do not.  The play gradually dwindles in momentum, and it ends lamely.

 

Note to Miss Harris

Such vigor as it has is aided by Noel Willman's theatrically knowledgeable production and by the two leading performances.  Robert Preston's hairy Henry is unsubtle but forceful, not very affecting but commandinig in presence.

 

Rosemary Harris's performnance as Eleanor is, in my view, a crucial point in her career.   She has most of the gifts that other actresses...(incomplete)

 

Photo Caption:  Rosemary Harris, as Queen Eleanor, argues with her son, Richard, played by James Rado, over his succession to his father's throne in "The Lion in Winter."  Bruce Scott and Dennis Cooney, as the younger sons, stand in rear.