DINNER AT ANTOINE'S

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 656, 1 February 1952, Page 7

DINNER AT ANTOINE'S

why people go to New Orleans (local pronunciation: Noo Orl’ns). One is the annual Mardi Gras festival and the other the French Quarter, an old, section are two good reasons

of the city noted for its ancient French architecture, and particularly its iron filigree balcony decorations. The French Quarter has a reputation something like the Casbah and tourists flock there to enjoy historic French settings and the latest Franco-American’ versions of,

night-life. Between these two extremes stands Antoine’s, a restaurant with a history and a reputation for modern cuisine. It is the sort of place where they turn out the lights before bringing in a flaming crepe suzette. From State Street, the "Broadway" of New Orleans, down a narrow alley running parallel to the tracks of a s*:eetcar with destination "Desire" written on it, one travels a little distance through the French Quarter to an old building far less imposing than others about it. The name is fading from the boards under the eaves and inside are dim lights in numerous small rooms. This is Antoine’s. Its visitors’ book contains the names of more famous people than ever visited New Zealand. Add to all this the fact that Antoine’s was made the scene of one of the States’ best-selling novels-Dinner at Antoine's, by Frances Parkinson Keyes. This novel is the basis of a new serial to be heard by New Zealand audiences shortly. The Grace Gibson production will first be heard at 3.45 p.m. on Monday, February 4, from 1YZ, and later from all YA and YZ stations. The Australian cast includes Kevin Brennan, Rosemary Millar, Bruce Stewart, Betty McDowell, Margo Lee, Alfred Bristowe, Reginald Goldworthy and Queenie Ashton. Dinner at Antoine’s is, principally, a story supported on that ever-sure plot of murder. Several romances among the guests who attend the opening banquet at Antoine’s, secure the structure and assure listeners of the usual standard of entertainment Miss Keyes is renowned

for. The scene she sets is New Orleans caught up in the spectacular festivities of Mardi Gras, and Orson Foxworth, shipping tycoon, seating his guests in the restaurant’s famed "1840 Room." According to the book’s dust-jacket blurb- "This dinner is ostensibly planned to present his (Foxworth’s charming niece, Ruth Avery, who has come from Washington for the Carnival festivities; to his friends in Louisiana, and to assure for her the romance which has hitherto eluded her; but it also serves as a springboard from which» to renew Foxworth’s own courtship of the beautiful widow Amélie Lalande. At the dinner Ameélie’s daughter, Odile, spills a glass of red wine down the front of her white dress, and though the incident is passed off lightly, it is tragically recalled thirty hours later when Odile is found dead. . ." Such is the plot of this serialised drama. The outcome is that 2 5 ‘ Suffice to say that justice is done and all romantic problems _§ solved. Through this high drama: move many men and women of contrasting charac-ter-with a benevolent Secretary of State to provide a deux ex machina ending. Behind the foreground occupied by the principal characters "move the inevitable and implacable police, and throughout the drama there is the atmosphere of New Orleans. Detailed settings: recreated from Miss Keyes’s own experiences in New Orleans provide a colourful locale for this story of semi-thriller proportions. As a radio play it should prove a dish equal to any Dinner at Antoine’s,