The Lion in Winter, TimeLine Theatre Company, and The Lion in Winter, Rising Moon Theatre Company, at the Athenaeum Theatre. Perhaps the current glut of productions of James Goldman’s play about Henry II and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, represents nostalgia for the days when smart people were involved in government. Whatever the reason, two companies have confronted the text’s brittle wit and come up victorious. Neither show is perfect, but both are well worth seeing.
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The most interesting comparison is between the productions’ two excellent Richards. At Rising Moon, Jonathan Nichols is inscrutable until a single, explosive, totally unexpected moment of anguish, while Stephen Rader at TimeLine is all exposed nerve endings, bristling at imaginary slights and bleeding at a touch. So this month there’s an embarrassment of riches in historical drama–worse things have happened.
