ON THEATER: ‘An Empty Plate’ is full of absurdity

A little over a year ago, the Laguna Playhouse mounted a production of Michael Hollinger’s “Red Herring,” a show this column described as “one of the most comically inspired pieces of theater to come down the pike in years . . . a superior mixture of satire and slapstick.”

Well, Hollinger is back, this time with one called “An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf,” which opens next week and runs through June with playhouse artistic director Andrew Barnicle again at the helm.

This one focuses on Victor, a wealthy American living in Paris in 1961, who owns the world’s greatest restaurant — which serves only him. As the story begins, Victor’s love affair has ended and his idol, Ernest Hemingway, has just committed suicide.

He’s in a foul mood and plans to starve himself to death, but the French restaurant staff attempts to alter his intentions by serving him a fabulous seven-course meal — which may or may not do the trick.

“Hollinger has a deep respect for the human condition, including its frailties,” Barnicle notes, “so regardless of the absurdity of some of the situations his characters are in, they always respond in a distinctly human way.”

Barnicle says audiences won’t really know what the play is about until the end, which he describes as “a very good thing. Nobody should be sitting around waiting for the ending because they already know what it’s going to be. Hollinger is a master of the unexpected.”

For the sake of authenticity, Barnicle has overcome a number of obstacles, including obtaining the services of a professional bullfighting consultant and a tuba teacher, as well as ensuring that the numerous French phrases in the script are properly pronounced.

Not to mention convincing the audience to buy into this world that is “somewhat askew from our reality.”

“The plot features a wealthy man who owns a restaurant that serves nobody but him,” the director notes. “Sounds whacked. But then again, Howard Hughes took up an entire floor of a hotel in Las Vegas for years and never came out. The trick is to make the weirdness plausible within the world of the play.”

Comprising the cast for “An Empty Plate” will be Adrian Sparks, Jeff Marlowe, Stasha Surdyke, Marc Cardiff, Graham Miller and Amy Kay Raymond.

The show opens May 30 after four evenings of previews and runs through June 28. Reservations are being taken at (949) 497-2787.

TOM TITUS reviews local theather for the Coastline Pilot.