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Selections From Idylls of the King and Camelot
255 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 1967
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About the author
Allan Knee
11 books8 followersAllan Knee is a film and television writer and playwright who authored the following:
Stage
Little Women (Broadway musical) (2005)
The Man Who was Peter Pan (42nd Street Workshop 'Off-Broadway. (March 1998)[1][2]
Late Nite Comic (Broadway) (1987)[3]
Film/TV
Esther's Diary (2010), a Holocaust film directed by Mariusz Kotowski
Finding Neverland (2004) (screenplay by David Magee was based on Knee's play, The Man Who Was Peter Pan)
The Scarlet Letter (1979) (mini-series)
Stage
Little Women (Broadway musical) (2005)
The Man Who was Peter Pan (42nd Street Workshop 'Off-Broadway. (March 1998)[1][2]
Late Nite Comic (Broadway) (1987)[3]
Film/TV
Esther's Diary (2010), a Holocaust film directed by Mariusz Kotowski
Finding Neverland (2004) (screenplay by David Magee was based on Knee's play, The Man Who Was Peter Pan)
The Scarlet Letter (1979) (mini-series)
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 27, 2018
The value of this volume, for me, resides in the inclusion of the entirety of Lerner & Lowe's musical play, Camelot, which is based on one of my favorite books, The Once & Future King by T.H. White, which in turn is inspired by Malory, and so on. I find the inclusion of selections from Tennyson’s Idylls of the King to be so woefully incomplete to lend the book any additional value, except for the casual reader who may wish to dip into Tennyson and then move on to the play. As the publisher also printed T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone, I cannot but help to think that this would have made a better companion piece, not only in terms that Camelot has sprung from White’s vision, but also that White’s first part of the novel covers Arthur’s childhood, while the play segues nicely into Arthur’s later life.
Of course, better than any of this, I would still choose T.H. White’s tetralogy. Still, a volume with the play and White's first Arthurian novel would have filled a nice niche in providing us segments that were excised from White's revision of the Sword in the Stone accompanied by the play, which takes from the later themes of White’s work and playfully summarizes them.
As I read through the play, I noticed the differences between it and the 1967 film version, and the similarities it has with the HBO film of the play with Richard Harris (on Prime video). For one, we do have Merlyn cavorting about early in the play even though his end is well nigh near, and there are whole sequences with Nimue and later (much to my surprise) with Morgan le Fay. As much as I love Morgan le Fay in the Arthurian cycles, I think it was wise to excise this part from the film version.
Although the play is unabashedly trite in many parts, the looming tragedy of the legend is ever present and palpable. It is in Act II, where I find myself taken by such lines as when Guenevere says: “Oh the insensitivity of sensitive men! Always suffering so much they can suffer nothing for others.” Oh, how the romancers have fallen, and it Guenevere who deals the blow!
Of course, who can resist the last scene in which a young Thomas Malory finds Arthur, is knighted and told to remember the stories and, by the way, this is drawn from White’s superior writing where the young Tom says: “I would do anything for King Arthur.”
And after going through another iteration of the Arthurian legend, I can feel this too.
There is a nice little introduction by Allan Knee, who summarizes how in both the Idylls and in Camelot “we see a great idea brought to ruin.” So true, and the same could be said of Malory, White, Stewart and Sutcliff among so many others.
In the play a chorus sings, “the sundown of a dream” and it is a dream I will return to time and time again.
Of course, better than any of this, I would still choose T.H. White’s tetralogy. Still, a volume with the play and White's first Arthurian novel would have filled a nice niche in providing us segments that were excised from White's revision of the Sword in the Stone accompanied by the play, which takes from the later themes of White’s work and playfully summarizes them.
As I read through the play, I noticed the differences between it and the 1967 film version, and the similarities it has with the HBO film of the play with Richard Harris (on Prime video). For one, we do have Merlyn cavorting about early in the play even though his end is well nigh near, and there are whole sequences with Nimue and later (much to my surprise) with Morgan le Fay. As much as I love Morgan le Fay in the Arthurian cycles, I think it was wise to excise this part from the film version.
Although the play is unabashedly trite in many parts, the looming tragedy of the legend is ever present and palpable. It is in Act II, where I find myself taken by such lines as when Guenevere says: “Oh the insensitivity of sensitive men! Always suffering so much they can suffer nothing for others.” Oh, how the romancers have fallen, and it Guenevere who deals the blow!
Of course, who can resist the last scene in which a young Thomas Malory finds Arthur, is knighted and told to remember the stories and, by the way, this is drawn from White’s superior writing where the young Tom says: “I would do anything for King Arthur.”
And after going through another iteration of the Arthurian legend, I can feel this too.
There is a nice little introduction by Allan Knee, who summarizes how in both the Idylls and in Camelot “we see a great idea brought to ruin.” So true, and the same could be said of Malory, White, Stewart and Sutcliff among so many others.
In the play a chorus sings, “the sundown of a dream” and it is a dream I will return to time and time again.
Displaying 1 of 1 review