Playwright: E. Warren Perry, Jr. At: Sideshow Theatre Company at Viaduct Theatre, 3111 N. Western. Info: 312-264-0130; $15. Runs through: Sept. 20
The hallmarks of bad Saturday Night Live sketches are well-known. They either go on far too long, and/or they have lame premises. And often when one is sketch is truly funny, the premise soon becomes tedious as the same wacky characters recycle catch phrases ad nausea.
Bad Saturday Night Live sketches come to mind watching Sideshow Theatre Company's world premiere of Ekphrasis: Cave Walls to Soup Cans. But unlike Saturday Night Live, you can't change the channel during an intermission-less 90-minute play that feels much longer.
Playwright E. Warren Perry, Jr., can't be faulted for trying to mine humor from the history of western art. As Perry mentions in his program note, revered things deserve to be mocked every now and then.
Perry hits upon art topics that have driven many a philosophical college thesis. Ideas of representation, ownership and the subject matter's importance versus the artist who is doing the creating are each explored with some thought.
Perry even goes to great lengths to over-explain the classical roots of his play's concepts and title ( led by a bland curator played by Peggy Entrop ) . "This is not the truth … it is only the story" is the play's overriding slogan.
But the problem with Ekphrasis is Perry's poor comic writing. Many sketches start out well with an interesting idea, and then they just drag.
Others are just ponderous and questionable: One sketch relies on scatological explicitness ( corn particles in stools are doted on by George Washington's portraitists ) while another sketch goes out its way to trade in ugly, relentlessly misogynistic jokes. Get tickets if you need to think of new ways to insult Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa ( or all women in general ) .
Like many a bad Saturday Night Live sketch, the problem is not always with the talent performing it. Ekphrasis' core company of actors are clearly having a field day playing all the comic rolesbe it crouching and hooting as cave men or affecting all sorts of odd dialects. ( The Truman Capote accent was a hoot. ) .
J.R. Rasberry, Mike Steele and Karie Miller are particularly good with the transformations, while Jae K. Renfrow isn't quite up to their level.
The production elements also go over better than the material. Set designer Joseph Riley has created a wavy white set that looks like a blend of Henry Moore and Jean Debuffet's curvy sculptures, while costume designer Betsey Palmer has fun with colorful add-ons on top of the actors' basic uniform of flesh-colored long johns.
With its high-fallutin' ideas and gutter-dredging humor, Ekphrasis is an odd dramatization of art history. But instead of playing like a "Best of Saturday Night Live" sketch compilation, Ekphrasis' offerings are mostly duds.