Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Lion in Winter
    The Lion in Winter
    The Lion in Winter
    Audiobook1 hour

    The Lion in Winter

    Written by James Goldman

    Narrated by Alfred Molina, Kathleen Chalfant and Full Cast

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    It's a typical family Christmas for the Plantagenets, complete with backstabbing, double-crossing, and rampant infidelity. James Goldman's brilliant historical drama pits King Henry II against the strong-willed Eleanor of Aquitaine, brought to life by Alfred Molina and Kathleen Chalfant.

    Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, in December 2001.

    Director: Rosalind Ayres Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg An L.A. Theatre Works Full-Cast Performance Featuring: Lars Carlson as John Kathleen Chalfant as Eleanor of Aquitaine Kevin Daniels as Richard Coeur De Leon Spencer Garrett as Philip Capet Laurel Moglen as Alais Capet Alfred Molina as Henry Plantagenet Steven Sutcliffe as Geoffrey Recording Engineer/Sound Designer/Editor: David Kelly For Voicebox Studios, Los Angeles"

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherL.A. Theatre Works
    Release dateApr 12, 2006
    ISBN9781580814713
    The Lion in Winter

    Related to The Lion in Winter

    Related audiobooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Cathedrals Made of Bricks

      Nov 25, 2019

      Cathedrals Made of Bricks
      6 min read

    • Article

      ‘The Humans’ Review: Stephen Karam’s Hit Play About An Unsettling Thanksgiving Comes To Showtime, Starring Amy Schumer And A Table Full Of Real Humans

      Nov 24, 2021

      ‘The Humans’ Review: Stephen Karam’s Hit Play About An Unsettling Thanksgiving Comes To Showtime, Starring Amy Schumer And A Table Full Of Real Humans
      2 min read

    • Article

      Qui Nguyen Finds a Home in Orange County

      Apr 2, 2019

      As a playwright, I’m a little bit ADD artistically,” says Qui Nguyen. “I get bored really quickly. I put things in there that are kind of wild, just to keep myself entertained.” Nguyen’s breakthrough play, Vietgone, illustrates exactly what he’s talk

      5 min read

    • Article

      Critic's Notebook: Star Turns That Serve The Broadway Play — Elaine May, Daniel Radcliffe And Janet McTeer Show How It's Done

      Nov 26, 2018

      NEW YORK - When it comes to playwriting, Broadway has a supply problem. Although the new generation of American dramatists is blazingly talented, the great majority of these writers prefer the creative flexibility of more intimate stages. New dramas

      6 min read

    • Article

      We Laughed–until We Cried

      Feb 5, 2020

      We Laughed–until We Cried
      4 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      May 15, 2019

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Courage To Be Happy

      Feb 1, 2023

      MARRIAGE and columns have this in common: you tend to repeat yourself. More than once in these pages, I have quoted the New Yorker’s legendary film critic Pauline Kael. After President Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972 she wrote: ‘I live in a rather

      3 min read

    • Article

      I Got 99 Problems

      Nov 4, 2020

      I have never been in a serious relationship and my whole family is convinced I’m secretly gay. I’d happily tell them if I were, but I’m content on my own. How can I make them understand? A. S., North Yorkshire No problem here, that I can detect. Tr

      4 min read

    • Article

      Trying To Be Just And Pious In Crusader Kings III Part II

      Dec 10, 2020

      Quick recap: I’m trying to ignore the urges this game inspires in me and everybody else, and be lovely, kind and noble at every possible opportunity; unless I catch anybody being in any way immoral, then they shall feel my pious wrath. After losing e

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Convict

      Jul 10, 2020

      The Convict
      5 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Feb 19, 2021

      At a local newspaper in South East London in 1957, journalist Jean Swinney receives a curious letter written to the editor. Gretchen Tilbury – abeautiful, well-to-do woman – claims her 10-year-old daughter is the product of a virgin birth. Gretchen h

      5 min read

    • Article

      Book Extract

      Jan 20, 2020

      My year off was also interesting, in that I didn’t feel any less loved, or cherished, or wanted. Why? Because my life is already rich with soulmates, and I got the chance to behold that. You don’t have to shag someone for them to be a soulmate. We do

      7 min read

    • Article

      Interview

      Feb 22, 2021

      Interview
      4 min read

    • Article

      Return Of The Bores

      Mar 9, 2022

      All bores are boring but not all boring people are bores. There are plenty of innocent folk who like nothing more than to share their anxieties about the village fête with you – and they’ll do it for 20 minutes you’ll never get back. Yet these are ju

      3 min read

    • Article

      On Loss

      Apr 17, 2023

      On Loss
      3 min read

    • Article

      Virginia Ironside

      Nov 16, 2022

      Q I'm sure you'll think I'm ridiculous: I'm a 70-year-oldwoman and I'm starting to wonder if I might not be gay. I did get married and had two children whom I adore, but I've always felt an outsider. I've always had very close friendships with women

      3 min read

    • Article

      Diary Of A Somebody

      Jun 30, 2021

      appendage. Noun. 1. a thing that is added or attached to something larger or more important. That’s me! The appendage, my whole lovely life: daughter of an MP (Sir John Knott, MP for St Ives, 1966-83, and Defence Secretary); wife of one (Sir Hugo Swi

      3 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jul 20, 2022

      Book Club
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Lion in Winter

    4.5/5

    156 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Good cast! A little difficult to understand what happens at the end in this audio medium.
    • 4/5
      Full of intrigue and sharp wit.
    • 5/5
      No matter how many times, and in how many venues, I am exposed to this work, I simply cannot give it less than five stars. It is a delightful work, based on the history of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, centered around one Christmas homecoming for Eleanor, on her yearly respite from the exile where her husband had locked her up. The battles between these two strong-willed individuals tear apart a family and could potentially tear apart a country. Three sons - one will inherit the throne. In an era before primogenitor, there was no certainty as to which one. Henry wants Prince John to succeed; Eleanor is determined to have Richard ascend the throne. If these names sound familiar, they should - they are the King Richard and Prince John of Robin Hood fame. The situation is complicated by the presence of Henry's young mistress, who is engaged to John - or to Richard - and her brother, the King of France, who wants her either married off or her dowery returned. At stake are two valuable pieces of land that Henry has no intention of releasing. Who is scheming against whom, and who will prove the winner? The smartest? The strongest? The one with the most pimples? It's a tour de force. You only thought your family was dysfunctional.
    • 5/5
      This is one of my absolute favorite plays! It has all the components of a great drama: extramarital affairs, family fighting, possible treason. Henry II wants his youngest son John to be king of England when he dies, but his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, wants the eldest, Richard, to be king. Add in a middle son that no one wants to be king, the young mistress of Henry II and the King of France, and it's a party! The play is witty and fast paced. History buffs will love this version of the event that lead to the rise of Henry II's heir. I would recommend this for upper level high school students studying World History. This may be especially intriguing to students in AP European History.
    • 5/5
      No matter how many times, and in how many venues, I am exposed to this work, I simply cannot give it less than five stars. It is a delightful work, based on the history of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, centered around one Christmas homecoming for Eleanor, on her yearly respite from the exile where her husband had locked her up. The battles between these two strong-willed individuals tear apart a family and could potentially tear apart a country. Three sons - one will inherit the throne. In an era before primogenitor, there was no certainty as to which one. Henry wants Prince John to succeed; Eleanor is determined to have Richard ascend the throne. If these names sound familiar, they should - they are the King Richard and Prince John of Robin Hood fame. The situation is complicated by the presence of Henry's young mistress, who is engaged to John - or to Richard - and her brother, the King of France, who wants her either married off or her dowery returned. At stake are two valuable pieces of land that Henry has no intention of releasing. Who is scheming against whom, and who will prove the winner? The smartest? The strongest? The one with the most pimples? It's a tour de force. You only thought your family was dysfunctional.
    • 5/5
      I'm about to start rehearsing to play Richard in this play, which goes up in June. It's a revisiting. I read it in college when I helped build the set for an OSU theater department production. Eight years later I played Geoffrey in a community theater version. Now on to Richard.

      The play takes place on a Christmas Day in the twelfth century, and concerns a unique dysfuctional family who just happen to be the Royal Family of England. There's the father, Henry II, trying to effect a peaceful transition of power to one of his sons while marrying his mistress, Alais. There's the mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the richest woman in the world, who is trying to finagle her freedom and the accession to power of another son. These two hate one another passionately, although the ghost of their love lingers.

      And then there are the boys. Richard, a bloody-minded warrior, Geoffrey, an intellectual plotter, and John, a sniveling brat. Add to the mix the young French king, Philip, and his sister, the above-mentioned Alais.

      Plots and schemes abound, as do witty putdowns, as the characters plot each other's deaths and simultaneously cry out for each other's love.

      Three key observations this time around:

      1) This is what the world would look like if psychiatry had never been invented. The family members practice their "talking cures" with one another, although no cure is in sight.

      2) This is the original "Game of Thrones", what with its combination of cutting, witty barbs and internecine plots.

      3) In many ways, the Plantagenet Family Christmas is the original "Festivus", complete with the airing of grievances, but without the pole and feats of strength.

      Doing this show again is going to be fun.
    • 5/5
      This is the play that the movie came from, and it's one of the most exciting and witty plays written. My edition has an interesting introduction by Goldman in which he relates how many people believe that the movie was made because the play was a big hit, which wasn't true. It was the movie, released over two years after the play had closed its brief Broadway run (with Christopher Walken as King Philip) that turned the play into a classic.It's Christmas, 1183, and the three princes, Richard, Geoffrey and John have gathered at their father's palace. Joining them from her exile is their mother, Queen Eleanor, who Henry has kept under guard somewhere for ten years while he took their French adopted daughter, Princess Alais, as his lover. On this day, Alais' brother, the king of France, has come to demand either the return of his sister or the fulfillment of Henry's contract: that Alais marry Richard and inherit the Aquitaine. That Henry does not want to give up Alais, his property or be ordered about are the immediate problems, but the bigger problem, and the plot of the play, is that Henry and Eleanor were and are horrible parents. Richard rages and openly desires to kill his father, Geoffrey repays his family for neglecting him by setting them up to be caught in his lies and John throws tantrums to guilt his father into giving him the crown. The dialogue is sharp, brutal and funny in a "see, your family could be worse" way that I love.
    • 4/5
      Full of intrigue and sharp wit.