Existential comedy asks: Where's the 'Boeuf'? By MICHAEL SMITH World Scene Writer 10/2/2004 Victor has a hunger that goes beyond food. He hasn't merely lost his appetite; he's lost his appetite for life. This wealthy American expatriate owns the greatest restaurant in Paris, and he is its sole customer. But there is nothing on the menu that can sate his desperation on this particular night.

Antoine, played by Bryan Reed (left), Mimi (Tara Treiber), Gaston (Nate Gavin) and Claude (Jamie Vannoy) try to stay in business in “An Empty Plate in the Cafe du Grand Boeuf” at Heller Theater. STEPHEN HOLMAN / Tulsa World

He sits alone at his table for two, his longtime female companion and dinner guest not in his company this evening. Then Victor tells the waiter he plans to eat nothing -- ever again.

Hence the title of playwright Michael Hollinger's "An Empty Plate in the Cafe du Grand Boeuf," a satisfying, well-constructed comedy directed by Frank Gallagher that opened Thursday night at Heller Theater.

Yes, it's a comedy, but this isn't sitcom comfort food. Hollinger's not a straight meat-and-potatoes man, and there aren't a lot of pie-in-the-face antics. His style dictates that this work be more complex than that, more of a consomme, a thinking-man's creation that calls for careful blending and consumption.

Victor's planned starvation portends dire consequences for others, as well. The cafe staff's livelihood -- their very purpose in life -- depends on Victor (B. Lee Rattlingourd), and they want to live to serve another day.

Head waiter Claude (Jamie Vannoy), his wife Mimi (Tara Treiber), chef Gaston (Nate Gavin) and waiter-in-training Antoine (Bryan Reed) convince Victor to enjoy one final meal. This feast will be created in the kitchen, but the staff will bring out only empty platters, instead describing each individual course in great detail.

It's a challenge for Victor to pass up each course through many mouth-watering explanations. These are dishes consisting of "mushrooms melting in a soft caress." Tomatoes are "buxom" and chateaubriand isn't merely cooked beef, but "the tenderest loins of American longhorn, beguilingly roasted to perfection."

"Are you trying to seduce me?" Victor asks Claude, who quickly and seriously responds, "I would not presume. The rabbit speaks for itself."

Vannoy is a joy as he deliciously enunciates each word in a manner not unlike an earnest Robin Williams. But Victor's mind won't be changed. He is devastated at the loss of his woman, and he wants only what he can't have.

A prize-winning journalist and son of a Cleveland newspaper publisher, Victor is prepared to dictate his life story in obituary form, in between multiple references to and quotations by Ernest Hemingway, who Victor reveres as a man of great literature while he was "writing for newspapers that nobody reads."

But in this work, every man and woman has a story to tell. And, as it turns out, they all have unsatisfied longings here at Victor's Big Ox Cafe, which in this creation by Larry Latham and Devin Meadows is truly a chalkboard restaurant, using an approximately 10-foot by 20-foot board as a backdrop.

Existentialism, absurdist farce, black comedy -- whatever you call it would be partially correct in describing "Empty Plate," a work that's always amusing but not fall-down funny in its tragic humor.

Gavin's performance as the persnickety chef is particularly good, and the remaining cast, including Julie Tattershall, are all solid. They believably create characters whose purpose in life is to sustain and satisfy, and all come to realize both how much they want and how much they have.

Rattlingourd is a standout as he absorbs the character of Victor, making him at once a commanding presence, a ball of confusion, and, for all his defeatist quoting of Hemingway, someone who would very much like to believe that "the world is a fine place, and worth fighting for."

But then, Hemingway committed suicide in 1961, the setting for this play. Which perhaps translates as, "Hey, life's short -- may as well do it on a full stomach."

Performances of "An Empty Plate in the Cafe du Grand Boeuf" continue 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday and Oct. 9 at Heller Theater, 5328 S. Wheeling Ave. Tickets are $5-$7 and may be reserved by calling 746-5065.

Michael Smith 581-8334
michael.smith@tulsaworld.com