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Synopsis
The Young King is based on one of the stories from Oscar Wilde’s
collection of original fairy tales, long beloved of children for their
fanciful imagery and by adults for their profound insights into morality
and human nature.
The
protagonist is the illegitimate son of a princess, originally exiled
because his father was a commoner. When it becomes clear that the boy is
the old king’s only heir, the dying monarch has him brought back to
court from the hillside where he had been raised by shepherds. A
free-spirited creature of the wood, the prince is enchanted by the
artworks and riches of the court, and falls asleep on a silken bed the
night before his coronation, anticipating the rich robe, golden crown,
and jeweled scepter he’ll be wearing the next day.
But
during the night he is haunted by three dreams that show him the human
cost of these riches. An angry, destitute Weaver Woman struggles to
finish the robe on time to avoid punishment; the ghost of a drowned
pearl diver tells of his fatal descent to the ocean floor in search of
the perfect pearl for the crown; and an allegorical struggle between
Avarice and Death claims the lives of the miners digging for rubies for
the scepter.
When
the Prince wakes up, still haunted by these images, he refuses to wear
the three beautiful adornments, since they were created at such a huge
human cost. Dressed in his old shepherd’s weeds, he goes to church for
his coronation, where he is castigated by the Bishop and heckled by the
angry mob as unfit to rule. But he turns to faith for the answer, and in
the final moments is miraculously transfigured as a new kind of King
for the future.
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Title Information
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Approximate Runtime (hh:mm)
1:10
Number of Acts
1
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