Children's Newsreel

Au Clair de la Lune
A play by Antonia Ridge.
France 1650
(Charles Heslop is appearing in 'The Manor of Northstead' at the Duchess Theatre, London)
(Second performance: August 1)
This is a story of two boys and a song. The first boy is Louis XIV, King of France; he is eleven years old, and must live a wearisome existence in has great palaces under strict supervision from such eminent adults as his cousin, the great Mademoiselle, and his leading statesman, my Lord the Cardinal. Louis has learned painfully that little kings are not as other little boys. But our other boy, although older, is hardly less unhappy; he is Jean-Baptiste Lulli, one day to be a famous musician, but now an Italian orphan who earns a living by playing his violin for a travelling players' show. And this is also the story of a magnificent banquet which Mademoiselle gives for her young royal relative; for by a series of happy accidents the two boys meet at the banquet, and the occasion is marked by the first performance of one of the loveliest and most famous songs ever written.

(to 17.45)