Review: ‘An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf’ at Laguna Playhouse

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Other people’s laughter can sometimes be so mysterious. I chalked up the guffaw that came in response to the standard announcement about not unwrapping candy during the show to a private crack by the culprit’s husband. But the live laugh track that accompanied Saturday’s opening-night performance of “An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf” at the Laguna Playhouse remains inexplicable to me.

Truth be told, I don’t think I emitted a single chuckle throughout the 90 minutes of Michael Hollinger’s innocuous yet inert comedy. The overall effect, oxymoronic though it may sound, is a kind of pleasant indifference — your mind gladly wilts the way it does after a long day at work while you’re sitting on the couch not watching the blaring TV.

Perhaps sensing that the material is a bit remedial, the cast strays into sitcom mannerisms that pull out all the stops to get a rise. But let’s not blame the production, directed by Laguna Playhouse artistic director Andrew Barnicle, for playwriting faults that it’s only trying to genially overcome.

Part of the problem is the farfetched premise. Set in 1961, the play revolves around Victor Bullard (Adrian Sparks), an expatriate millionaire American journalist (talk about oxymoronic) who maintains a restaurant in Paris for his private use. After suffering a broken heart while attending a bullfight in Madrid, the aging Victor, who’s obsessed with Hemingway and has a quote for every occasion, returns to the establishment so that the attentive staff can watch him starve to death.

One needs to be coaxed into suspending disbelief, not unduly challenged by a tortured setup. But the larger issue is the multitude of plot devices that Hollinger test drives along the way. It’s as if he’s not sure if he wants to write an old-fashioned French farce, an absurdist homage to Beckett, a literary vignette unfolding in the year of Hemingway’s death, a romantic tear-jerker, or an inane gag-ridden TV comedy. The result is like a bumper-car ride of genres that culminates in a giant paralytic smash-up.

A brief description of the characters should tell you all you need to know. Beyond Victor, portrayed by Sparks as a pompous windbag with a poignant streak, there’s Claude (Jeff Marlow), the professionally devoted headwaiter amid a quarrel with his mismatched wife, Mimi (Stasha Surdyke), an attractive and charming hostess whose superfluous employment seems designed to drive Gaston (Marc Cardiff), the zealous chef who’s frustrated that all his great dishes are going to naught, insane with amorous longing.

[Update: An earlier post of this review misspelled Marc Cardiff’s name as Mark.]

But while Gaston lusts after Mimi, Claude has his bisexual sights set on Antoine (Graham Miller), the stammering apprentice waiter with journalistic aspirations, who’s more interested in taking down Victor’s life story than telling him what’s on the menu. This daisy chain of dissatisfaction is made complete by Miss Berger (Amy Kay Raymond), the object of Victor’s affection, who set him spiraling into despair ever since their trip to Madrid in which a bull miraculously escaped being slaughtered (yes, the metaphors pile up too).

These characters are all theatrical types, but to his credit Hollinger gives them a sensitive lining. They have a sweetness, which accounts perhaps for their amiable rapport with the audience. And though the play drums into our head the notion of fulfillment as an elusive wish — appetites go unsatisfied even at one of the world’s great restaurants — despair isn’t allowed to spoil a jocular spirit born out of familiarity and togetherness.

The staging, furnished with a competent if uninspired set by Bruce Goodrich, aspires to make the Café our home away from home. But it’s hard to believe in a place that elicits little more than a smiling shrug.

-- Charles McNulty

“An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf,” Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends: June 28. $30-$65. (949) 497-2787. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes