Dear Antoine

Cher Antoine'', ou, ''L'amour raté is a play by Jean Anouilh (1910–1987)[1]

Often referred to as Dear Antoine, the shorter version of the English title.

The original text

A play about a group of people is summoned to a remote baroque mansion in the Bavarian mountains to hear the reading of the Will of successful playwright Antoine de Saint Flour in the winter of 1913. The reluctant group includes the playwright's wife, a few friends and several ex-mistresses. In confronting one another they are uneasily aware that they are facing different reflections of Antione's fascinating and maddening personality. Poignant and fiercely witty, it displays to the full Anouilh's theatrical sleight of hand.

It was written and first produced at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris in 1969 in a production that was co-directed by the author.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into English as Dear Antoine, or The Love That Failed by Lucienne Hill. English translation first performed in Paris in 1969, published by Samuel French.

Performance history in South Africa

1971: The play's South African première was presented by CAPAB Drama's English Company in the Nico Malan Theatre in 1971, directed by Michael Atkinson, designed by Raimond Schoop, costumes by Jennifer Craig, starring Gwen ffrangçon-Davies as Carlotta Alexandra, Michael Atkinson (Antoine), John Whiteley (Cravatar), Arthur Hall (Marcellin), Marika Mann, Ronald France, Betty Botha, Grethe Fox, Kerry Jordan, Gabriel Bayman, Mollie Thompson, Rob Davies, Diana James, Kathleen Lee, Marion Achber, Richard Hainebach. Music composed (or arranged) and conducted by Michael Tuffin. This was the first English theatre production in the Nico Malan Theatre Centre, CAPAB's new home.

Sources

Dear Antoine programme, 1971

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Anouilh

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