Playwright: WNEP company members . At: WNEP Theater at Storefront Theater, 66 E. Randolph. Phone: 312-742-8497; $15-$20. Runs through: Feb. 21
American realist painter Edward Hopper ( 1882-1967 ) is famed for his melancholy paintings of urban isolation. And often in those paintings, Hopper positioned contemplative people caught up in their own private thoughts amid contrasting shadows and light.
Honing in on all that unspoken drama in Hopper's works, Jen Ellison of WNEP Theater came up for the concept of finding dramatic inspiration from those paintings in The ( edward ) Hopper Project, now having its world premiere at the Storefront Theatre.
It's certainly a promising idea, since generations of gallery strollers have filled in their own narration for what's happening in Hopper's canvases.
But the main problem with The ( edward ) Hopper project is that there are too many playwriting cooks. Along with Ellison, WNEP got Mary Jo Bolduc, Bob Fisher, Tom Flanigan, Merrie Greenfield, Don Hall, Joe Janes, Cholley Kuhaneck and Rebecca Langguth to all contribute to the play's vignettes ( some also do double duty as actors ) .
These scenes vary wildly in tone from playful pantomime between Andrew Jordan and Amanda Rountree, to heart-wrenching familial showdowns between Merrie Greenfield and Marsha Harman.
The ( edward ) Hopper project utilizes a large cast ( 17! ) to show what happens from 6 a.m. to midnight on a day in 1952 in Brooklyn, N.Y. It's not all in one physical location, like Elmer Rice's 1929 tenement drama Street Scene, but spread out all over to include offices, diners, private apartments, movie theaters and more.
No doubt Heath Hays' multi-level and compartmentalized set is meant to mirror Hopper's iconic paintings, but sometimes you wish for more historical details. ( The hastily made bus stop sign is one visual misstep. ) Much more successful is costumer Rebecca Lannguth for assembling the period costumes to fit the cast and general look of Hopper's paintings.
But the main problem with the play is that many of its dramatic realizations don't compatibly sync up with what many people would intone to be the logical dramas in Hopper's urban work. Some amusing scenes, like the suicidal boss George ( Kevin Gladish ) or the sparring couple of newspaper-reading Ernst ( Regan Davis ) and his long-suffering wife, Thelma ( Lori Goss at the piano ) , turn comical when you feel they should be much more dramatic and heartfelt.
At two hours and 15 minutes ( including intermission ) and without a strong through-line to tie all the pieces together, The ( edward ) Hopper Project wears out its welcome. ( An edited version lasting 90-minutes would have been preferable. ) .While it's neat to thrill at the large cast assembled by director/producer Don Hall in such a small space, the sheer number of playwrights and performers get short shrift at trying to get in a variety of dramatic interpretations of Edward Hopper's wonderful work.