Parallel Lives in Historic New Orleans

TORONTO —  It’s early evening at St. Lawrence Hall. Outside, the routine is much the same as it is every other day: drivers trapped in the traffic snarl of the bustling downtown streets, horns sounding in a chorus of rush-hour frustration.

Inside, though, in the turn-of-the-century building’s grand ballroom, the contemporary world gives way. Mulatto women dressed in opulent gowns, complete with bustles and lace, glide effortlessly along the wooden floor, below the crystal chandelier and invariably in the arms of white--often much older--men.

For today, at least, St. Lawrence Hall is replaced by pre-Civil War New Orleans and one of its most secret institutions, the Quadroon Ball.

The racial division apparent in the room is, of course, no coincidence: A pivotal point in the Showtime miniseries “The Feast of All Saints,” based on the Anne Rice novel, the ball is at the center of an antiquated New Orleans tradition that has all but vanished into the mists of history.

During the era when the gentility of New Orleans was largely white and French, a social convention developed outside the confines of proper society: Wealthy landowning men, locked into loveless marriages for the sake of family associations, would seek out mistresses among New Orleans’ gens de couleur libres, the free people of color.

European-educated, cultured and socially refined, the gens de couleur were the descendants of pre-revolution aristocracy in Haiti, many of whom escaped to New Orleans and brought with them their expectations of privilege.

Not that these were easy to meet, says Victoria Rowell, who plays Josette Metoyer, the matriarch of the gens de couleur and the society’s fervent preservationist.

“The idea that blacks were receiving all this privilege was unheard of,” she says (this is the South before the Civil War, where slavery was still an accepted institution).

But from their arrival in New Orleans, the gens de couleur saw themselves as different. “Not only did the white colonists have slaves, but so did the gens de couleur ; they had slaves in Haiti as well as in New Orleans.”

So, under the nose of the growing acrimony between North and South, and amid growing racial tension, the gens de couleur carried out their old ways: The women of the gens de couleur were matched with the white French gentry of New Orleans.

What evolved for a man in this society were parallel lives. One was with a white family he could present to the world--a marriage of convenience, about little more than social status--and the other was with a mistress from the gens de couleur . For a woman it was more than simply a de facto marriage; it was the only way to keep the society, and its pretensions of aristocratic superiority, alive.

“It’s no different from these women who you see hanging off the arms of, well, name any mogul,” says Jennifer Beals, who plays Dolly Rose, one of the gens de couleur women. “They’re selling their wares for money or for placement in society.”

It was also a union from which polite society looked the other way. It’s in one of these unions that “The Feast of All Saints” unfolds: Peter Gallagher and Gloria Reuben, playing French landowner Philippe Ferronnaire and his mistress, Cecile Ste. Marie, are matched by Josette, Cecile’s aunt. They have a son, Marcel, and all seems to be going as Josette hopes.

But something stirs in Marcel (Robert Ri’chard), whose sister, Marie Ste. Marie, is played by Nicole Lyn. Despite Josette’s careful tutelage about the old ways, Marcel begins to see the fragile, pathetic world into which he has been born.

“Marcel has somewhat chosen to ignore it, but later on he has an opinion on it,” says Ri’chard, taking a moment after a day of shooting. “His father comes to the house to take advantage of his mother. He starts to think that [his father] could care less about them.”

In the story, it’s not true. If anything, Philippe is more deeply invested emotionally in his life with Cecile than he is in any other relationship. But the barriers to giving himself over to that life are reinforced: Even Marcel, his son, cannot take his name. Such a privilege is reserved for his white son.

It is in Philippe’s conflict, Gallagher says, that the historical context slips away to reveal some very current issues.

“I’m hoping there will be moments where it could seem completely contemporary, but we’re in 19th century dress,” he says. “It’s a story about racism, but from a very different angle--degrees of racism, the shades of race, how dark your skin is--and yet everyone is driven by the same human needs and desires.”

Director Peter Medak, too, sees “The Feast of All Saints” as something well beyond a history lesson.

“It’s not really just a historical thing. It’s an emotional take on it,” says Medak, probably best known for his films “The Ruling Class” and the cult hit “The Krays.” “I loved Anne Rice’s book. It’s really about something vital. It doesn’t preach, but it does show a lot about the problem of color.”

For Medak, the problem crystallizes in Marcel. Raised to believe he’s a child of privilege, and yet not permitted to take a place at his father’s side in mainstream society, Marcel is conflicted and starts to see holes in the fragile existence the gens de couleur have built for themselves.

Resistant to the endless preaching about his place in society, Marcel falls in love with a black girl, the daughter of a slave. It’s as distasteful to his own people as it would be for the whites of New Orleans society--a sick double standard that forbids one outsider, Marcel, from consorting with another.

In Marcel’s story, Medak sees the embodiment of all the nonsensical codes of racism in general and the way that societal convention can crush the human spirit.

“People’s attitude toward it just makes one’s blood boil. We’re all the same people. It’s ridiculous. I love stories where it’s one individual battling it out against the institutional world, against the facelessness that destroys all individuality,” he says. “It’s important not necessarily to remind the world of misery but of the mistakes of the past.”

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Part 1 of “Anne Rice’s the Feast of All Saints” can be seen Sunday night at 8 on Showtime, with the conclusion Monday night at 8. The network has rated it TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14).