Lancelot & Elaine

The story of Lancelot and Elaine is based on Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem Idylls of the King.

The production features Christopher Cartmill and Kathleen O'Grady. It was edited and adapted for radio by Christopher Cartmill and produced by WNYC's Scott Borden and Gads Hill for a broadcast on February 11, 2001.  Jo Ann Allen introduces the production. Engineering by George Wellington.

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From the original proposal, July 7, 2000:

Courtly love developed during the twelfth century in France. It celebrated an intensely idealized form of 'falling in love' with every society in every age is familiar in a highly elaborate code of behavior. It permanently influenced our culture and society and the way we think about romantic love. 

It was during the great flowering of the troubadours in the twelfth century that the tale of Lancelot and the Lily Maid of Astolat were added to the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. 

To the Victorian, both English and American, this story of love and honor took a place of central importance. And for it, Tennyson created some of his most beautiful and bittersweet verses.

We are brought up from birth with the idea that romantic love makes life worthwhile. It seductively promises the most intense happiness and personal fulfillment. Yet the various pains of disappointment, rejection, jealousy and betrayal are the other side of the coin and the cause of oft-told suffering to those unlucky in love. Is romantic love merely an artistic expression of something deeper in the human soul? Is it all an elaborate game or the true business of life?

WNYC Radio and Gad's Hill bring back the lovely and moving tale of Sir Lancelot and Elaine and the art of storytelling as only radio can do in this adaptation of Lancelot and Elaine from Tennyson's Idylls of the King by Kennedy Center award-winning playwright Christopher Cartmill. This intimate treatment captures all the drama, charm, irony, heartbreak, and transcendence of Tennyson's poetry using just two voices and musical accompaniment.