My Dinner with Andre

The life of a playwright is tough.

It's not easy,

as some people seem to think.

You work hard writing plays,

and nobody puts them on.

You take up other lines of work

to try to make a living...

I became an actor...

...and people don't hire you.

So you just spend your days

doing the errands of your trade.

Today I'd had to be up

by 10.:
00 in the morning...

...to make some

important phone calls.

Then I'd gone to the stationery store

to buy envelopes. Then to the Xerox shop.

There were dozens of things to do.

By 5.:
00 I'd finally made it

to the post office...

...and mailed off

several copies of my plays...

...meanwhile checking constantly

with my answering service...

...to see if my agent

had called with any acting work.

In the morning, the mailbox

had just been stuffed with bills.

What was I supposed to do?

How was I supposed to pay them?

After all, I was already doing my best.

I've lived in this city all my life.

I grew up on the Upper East Side...

...and when I was 10 years old

I was rich, I was an aristocrat...

...riding around in taxis,

surrounded by comfort...

...and all I thought about

was art and music.

Now I'm 36,

and all I think about is money.

It was now 7.:
00...

...and I would have liked nothing better than

to go home and have my girlfriend Debby...

...cook me a nice, delicious dinner.

But for the last several years

our financial circumstances...

...have forced Debby to work

three nights a week as a waitress.

After all, somebody had to

bring in a little money.

So I was on my own.

But the worst thing of all was that I'd been

trapped by an odd series of circumstances...

...into agreeing to have dinner

with a man I'd been avoiding literally for years.

His name was Andr Gregory.

At one time he'd been

a very close friend of mine...

...as well as my most valued colleague

in the theater.

In fact, he was the man

who had first discovered me...

...and put one of my plays

on the professional stage.

When I'd known Andr, he'd been at the height

ofhis career as a theater director.

The amazing work he did with his company,

the Manhattan Project...

...had just stunned audiences

throughout the world.

But then something

had happened to Andr.

He dropped out of the theater.

He sort of disappeared.

For months at a time, his family seemed

only to know that he was traveling...

...in some odd place like Tibet...

...which was really weird

because he loved his wife and children.

He never used to like

to leave home at all.

Or else you'd hear that someone had met him

at a party and he'd been telling people...

...that he talked with trees

or something like that.

Obviously, something terrible

had happened to Andr.

The whole idea of meeting him

made me very nervous.

I mean, I really wasn't up

for that sort of thing.

I had problems of my own.

I mean, I couldn't help Andr.

Was I supposed to be a doctor, or what?

- Hello.

- Hello.

- Here you go.

- Thank you.

- Yes, sir.

- Ah, sir, my name is Wallace Shawn.

I'm expected at the table

of Andr Gregory.

That table will be a moment, sir.

If you like,

you may have a drink at the bar.

- Good evening, sir.

- Uh, could I have a club soda, please?

I'm sorry, sir.

We only serve Source de Pavilion.

Oh, that'd be fine, thank you.

When I'd called Andr, and he'd suggested

that we meet in this particular restaurant...

I'd been rather surprised, because

Andr's taste used to be very ascetic...

...even though people have always known

that he had some money somewhere.

I mean, how the hell else could he have

been flying off to Asia and so on...

...and still have been supporting his family?

The reason I was meeting Andr was that

an acquaintance of mine, George Grassfield...

...had called me

and just insisted that I had to see him.

Apparently, George had been walking his dog

in an odd section of town the night before...

...and he'd suddenly come upon Andr...

...leaning against a crumbling old building

and sobbing.

Andr had explained to George

that he'd just been watching...

...the Ingmar Bergman movie

Autumn Sonata...

...about 25 blocks away...

...and he'd been seized

by a fit of ungovernable crying...

...when the character played

by Ingrid Bergman had said...

"I could always live in my art,

but never in my life. "

Wallyl...

- Wow.

- My God.

I remember, when I first

started working with Andr's company...

I couldn't get over the way the actors

would hug when they greeted each other.

"Wow. Now I'm really in the theater, "

I thought.

Well, you look terrific.

Well, I feel terrible.

Good evening, sir.

Nice to see you again.

Thank you. Good evening.

Ah, I think I'll have a spritzer, if I could.

- Yes, sir.

- Thank you.

I was feeling incredibly nervous.

I wasn't sure I could stick through

an entire meal with him.

Great.

So we talked about this and that.

He told me a few things

aboutJerzy Grotowski...

...the great Polish theater director...

...who was a friend and almost like

a kind of a guru of Andr's.

He'd also dropped out of the theater.

Grotowski was a pretty

unusual character himself.

At one time, he'd been quite fat, then he'd

lost an incredible amount of weight...

...and become very thin

and grown a beard.

- Your table is ready, if you feel like sitting down.

- Oh.

- Oh.

- Yes. Thank you.

I was beginning to realize

that the only way to make this evening bearable...

...would be to ask Andr

a few questions.

Asking questions always relaxes me.

In fact, I sometimes think

that my secret profession...

...is that I'm a private investigator,

a detective.

I always enjoy finding out about people.

Even if they're in absolute agony,

I always find it very... interesting.

- By the way, is he still thin?

- What?

Grotowski. Is he still thin?

Oh. Absolutely.

Oh, waiter?

Uh, I think we can do without this.

- Yes, sir.

- Thank you.

What about this one?

Seven swimming shrimp.

- Ready for your order?

- Ah, yes.

Uh, the Galuska...

How... How do you prepare that?

Andr seemed

to know an awful lot about the menu.

- Dumpling with raisins, blanched almonds.

- I didn't understand a word of it.

- Very good, I think.

- Hmm.

No, I... I think I'll have

the Cailles aux Raisin, the quail.

- Very good.

- Oh, quails! I'll have that as well.

- Two. -

Great. - Great!

And then I think, to begin with,

the Terrine de Poissons.

- Yes.

- What is that?

Uh, it's a sort of pte...

light, made of fish.

- Does it have bones in it?

- No bones.

Perfectly safe.

Well, um...What is

the, um, Bramborov Polvka?

It's a potato soup.

It's quite delicious.

Oh, well, that's great.

I'll have that.

- Thank you very kindly.

- Thank you very much.

Well.

When was the last time

that we saw each other?

So we talked for a while

about my writing and my acting...

...and about my girlfriend, Debby.

And we talked about his wife, Chiquita,

and his two children, Nicolas and Marina.

And I'd stayed back in New York.

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