They Make a Fun and Exciting Show out of Medieval Life

For 34 years, the Medieval Times shows featured brave, handsome knights and lovely ladies of the 13th or 14th centuries who gathered for a ferocious jousting and sword fighting tournament at nine Medieval showplaces across the United States and Canada. They were overseen by the noble King, who was the esteemed and beloved Lord of the Realm.

Things have changed at the castle, though. Now all of the tournaments, and there are hundreds per year (Atlanta, Dallas, Baltimore, Buena Park, Cal., Chicago, Myrtle Beach, S.C., Orlando, and Toronto, Canada), are overseen by the late King’s daughter, Queen Dona Isabella, a lovely young lady, who nightly suffers the taunts of chauvinistic knights who charge that a women cannot run a kingdom.

The gender switch in the tried and true formula is just one more barrier that women have knocked down over the years, here with a crown rather than a protest banner. Surprisingly, the producers of Medieval Times did not make the switch – the fans of the show did. In thousands of questionnaires They said they wanted a Queen.

“We are now showing a woman completely in charge, a woman whose authority is sometimes questioned, but she quickly rises to the occasion as a strong leader, squelching opposition, “said general manager Ingrid Hunt.

And, make no mistake about it, the new Queen is a tough Monarch.

The irony, of course, is that if you ask people to name great monarchs, a whole bunch of Queens will make the list – Queen Philippa of 13th century England, Britain’s Elizabeth I and II, Catherine of Aragon, Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette, Queen Victoria, Mary, Queen of Scots, the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia and Queen Isabella of Spain, who sent Columbus on his way westward in 1492.

So, the gender transition of monarchs at the Medieval Knights shows is not as jarring as people might think. It certainly was not at the show I went to see at the “Lyndhurst Castle “at 140 Polito Avenue, in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, just across the highway from the Meadowlands sports complex. There the show was a complete sellout and fans, young and old, men and women, and a whole lot of jolly kids, yelled their lungs out for each of the knights ready to joust and for the new Queen, too.

I saw this show about 15 years ago and enjoyed it immensely. The show is even better now because the crowds get into the cheering and the knights and their horses are better.

Here’s how the show/tournament about the Middle Ages works in each of its cities. The purpose of the show is to determine a new “champion” of the country (the country looks a little like Spain). The champion must best others to win and not only enjoy the title, but the friendship of the new Queen.

There are 1,350 seats in the arena and a certain number of people are told they are to cheer for a particular knight (I got to scream for the bold and chivalrous Blue Knight, everybody’s favorite). The different knights engage in different games and wind up sword fighting and then, the climax of the evening, the joust. All of this is preceded by a horse show in which the steeds perform some of the same maneuvers you see at the National Horse Show.

The entire show seems is right out of all those marvelous old 1950s movies. It is Captain from Castille meets El Cid meets Prince Valiant meets Game of Thrones. There is jousting, vivid action sword fights, spurts of blood, battles to the death, heroes and villains. There is a magical pageantry to the show, with lots of glorious old banners from the different “houses” of old Spain triumphantly raised during processions. The knights put on quite a show, amid loud cheering, too. The staging of the fights, and the joust, is very professional and the knights whip the crowd into a frenzy.

Throughout all of this, members of the audience devour a four-course meal. You can’t use your hands to eat because this is back in the Renaissance, when that was simply not done.

Towards the end of the show – the Queen as chief storyline runs through all of the performance - the villain appears to have won. Then he insults the Queen, questions her, well, her “manhood” and ability to lead the nation, and she is angered. She then asks if there is any knight willing to defend her honor against this egomaniacal, blood-thirsty killer and the trusty Red Knight emerges. He goes after the villain with a vengeance and, well, figure it out.

The show is different from anything you’ve ever seen. The kids love it because they are told not to keep quiet, as they are in the theater, the ballet, opera and in movies They are told to howl at the top of their lungs and they do - vociferously. It is a hoot when the Queen asks if one of the good guys lives should be spared and everybody jumps up and yells “kill him!”

The brand-new Queen rules overall and in the show is firm with all.

“She needs to be, right?” said Tara Henderson, one of the actresses who plays Queen Dona at the Lyndhurst shows.

Actually, Tara said, the producers of the show spent an entire two months rewriting and rehearsing the new story with the Queen as the Monarch. “They told me to play the Queen as I saw fit, but they stressed that as the head of a country I had to be fair and kind but I also needed to be tough, and I am.”

Tara gets to talk to families after each performance. “The adults enjoy it, but what struck me was the reaction of the little girls. I think that seeing the Queen, a girl, in charge, gives them a sense of empowerment.”

She sees her role as head of the jousting tournament as important. “As Queen, you run your country like you run your tournament, and I try to do that. I need to be regal, but a leader and good manager, too,” said Tara.

One thing that enchants her about the show is horseback riding. She had never ridden a horse before and now she does it in every performance. “Oh, a horse trainer taught us all how to ride and we practice it from time to time, too,” she said. “It is great fun.”

Royalty is not new to her. The veteran actress has played Queens in several Shakespeare plays Off-Broadway. “Once, I was in a small cast Shakespeare play and I got to play the Queen and, changing clothes real fast, one of her sons.”

Ironically, the Medieval Times show was one of the first plays she saw. “I grew up in New Jersey and when I was a child my parents took me to this show. I never thought that when I grew up I’d be in the show, and wear the crown, too.”

She likes the feel of majesty. “I like being in charge,” Henderson laughs. “It’s good to be the Queen.”

So, in the end, her crown firmly on her head, Queen Dona Isabella is ready to take on anybody. Bring on the knights of the roundtable!