Lion in Winter

Click here to see the digital program-playbill.

Click here to read the press feature article about the show, by Kilian Melloy of the Boston Theater Critics Association’s Elliot Norton Awards Committee, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, Edge Media Network’s Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor, National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, and The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association.

The Theatre Company of Saugus is pleased to announce its hosting of a professional Boston-area theatre company, The Psych Drama Company, in their presentation of The Lion in Winter, in June 2022. The Lion in Winter is the classic historical play by James Goldman, about King Henry II of England and his meeting with his queen, mistress, children, and rival king at his castle in Chinon, France during Christmas in the year 1183. Who shall succeed him as king? All three sons want to be the one, but how can Henry choose only one without making the others his enemies?

Best known from the movie version starring Peter O’Toole and Kathryn Hepburn, The Lion in Winter is at turns dramatic and comic. The Psych Drama presentation will be immersive, seating the audience in the various rooms of the castle so that they get a close up look at the action from the perspective of the characters, while at the same time being socially distanced from the other sections of the audience.

Psych Drama has been rehearsing this play since April 2020, with the intention of being ready to present it in person when theaters reopened. Now that time has finally come, after over two years! Needless to say, the show is ready! In the meantime, an audio radio-play version was recorded, and that was streamed in December 2020. Click here to read rave press reviews of the radio play, and an exclusive press interview including discussion of the journey of the show from radio drama to fully realized production.

The Psych Drama Company last year also produced two critically acclaimed audio drama adaptations, of Macbeth, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

To learn more about The Psych Drama Company, please visit their website ThePsychDramaCompany.com.

The production is co-directed by Larry Segel and Wendy Lippe. The cast includes:

Brian Dion as King Henry II
Wendy Lippe as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine
Richie DeJesus as Richard the Lionheart
Zachary McConnell as Geoffrey
Michael Mazzone as John
Caitlin Cremins as Alais
Norman Dubois as Philip

The Psych Drama Company is the producer and provider of the show. The Theatre Company of Saugus is contributing to the scenic elements, publicity effort, and front of house services. Both companies will share in any profits from ticket sales. If you would like to help out with the show behind the scenes, or want to buy ads in the program, please contact us at tcsaugus@gmail.com.

Tickets will be $25, and are now on sale. Visit our Tickets page. Performances will be Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 PM, on June 10, 11, 17, 18, with Sunday matinees at 3:00 PM on June 12 & 19, 2022. The venue is the American Legion Post 210 at 44 Taylor Street, Saugus, Massachusetts. (This show was originally scheduled for January 2022 in Saugus, but was postponed because of the Omicron surge.)