With An Empty Plate in the Cafe du Grand Boeuf, playwright Michael Hollinger tells a breathtakingly well-executed story. The sense of poetry, symmetry and composition about the story is really quite overwhelmingly beautiful. It's a simple story played largely in realtime without any intermission--an intimate drama painted on a small canvas between a few people in the best restaurant in the world. It's the sort of show that works exceedingly well in a studio theatre. And so it is the perfect type of comedic drama for Windfall Theatre, which opens its 21st season with the play this month.
David Flores enters the quaint, little atmosphere of the stage disheveled and emotionally exhausted. He's playing the man who owns the restaurant--its only customer. He's an American in Paris. And he wants to starve to death in the best restaurant in the world. Because he's depressed. One of the great seasoned talents of Milwaukee theatre, Flores is sparklingly charming in the role without betraying the character's central sense of overwhelming depression. It's a delicate balance to try to render onstage. The character can't seem to depressed otherwise the play would be abrasively unpleasant. At the same time, if the depression doesn't seem genuine enough, then the central conflict of the play comes across as weak. Not only does Flores handle this balance quite well, he does so while infusing the character with a very distinct and subtly intricate personality.
Of course, those working for the man wishing to starve to death aren't at all comfortable. And it's not just the money they may be missing after his death. The employees of the best restaurant in the world have a calling and that calling is at odds with the very idea of starvation. So they work to serve the man in whatever way they can. So, as he delivers a remarkably concise description of his life story, the many courses of a sumptuous meal are described to him as he is presented with empty plates. It's the small concession that the restaurant's owner is willing to make. He will starve to death, but he will allow those who work the restaurant to make one last meal for him anyway . . . a meal that he will not eat.
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I know: Poetic, right? Very, very poetic.
The restaurant's owner is deeply upset. He is seeking the perfect end. The program states that the play takes place in July 0f 1961. Actually, that's probably July 3rd 1961. The date is only peripherally significant, but it's an interesting bit of trivia that comes into the play somewhere in the background of things. There's an event that has happened that has made an already depressed temperament that much worse.
The employees try their best. Each one of them has desires that are at odds with the world around them. Matt Wickey plays the maitre d'. With a deft tongue, he delivers the descriptions of the food being served as recited from no earthly menu. He demands perfection in the restaurant but seems to lack a basic understanding of how to relate to the people in his life. It's a very disciplined performance on the part of Wickey. And his delivery of the food descriptions is quite decadently realized.
Lindsey Gagliano plays his wife--the waitress at the restaurant. Their marriage isn't working out. Gagliano brings a sweetness to the stage that warms things quite a bit. She's got this incredible sense of compassion that comes across even in silent moments. That she's able to do this without coming across as an exaggerated charactature of the perfect waitress is quite an accomplishment on her part.
Christopher Elst plays the chef in the best restaurant in the world. Such a character could be played any of a number of different ways. That Elst is relatively young, tall and athletic lends the character's physical presence a kind of vitality. It's fun casting--we almost never see the food that he's making, but as the physical embodiment of its origin onstage, we know that this is remarkable stuff. Elst brings a passion to the role that's fascinating to watch. Another very stunningly charismatic performance by Elst.
Mohammad ElBsat is meant to be the deeply flawed figure that contrasts against all of the perfection of the rest of the restaurant's staff--a man who likely could not get decent work elsewhere. ElBsat does a pretty good job with the role just by looking anxious and sympathetic onstage. The stutter he affects never sounds quite natural enough, but he has some very warm moments onstage. He is the less-than-adequate replacement for a waiter who passed away before the events of the play. THAT waiter played the violin. THIS waiter . . . plays a painful little piece of brass that actually has its own grace about it over time. It's flawed near-music, but much like the character himself, it feels quite honest.
Carol Zippel appears towards the end of the play in a role that provides a beautiful, little coda to the events of the play which precede it.
This may be my favorite script to be staged so far this season. And thanks to an excellent cast, it's brought to the stage with heartfelt emotion.
Windfall Theatre's production of An Empty Plate in the Cafe du Grand Boeuf runs through October 12th at Village Church Arts on 130 East Juneau Avenue. For ticket reservations, call 414-332-3963.
