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Hotel Room

Written by Merrie Greenfield, actress and co-author of The (edward) Hopper Project , playing January 15-February 21 at the Storefront Theater.

Some changes to the script left the writers to submit an additional scene, fairly late in the process. I found it my easiest scene to write. It’s one of the few written with another scene/characters in mind (and the only one I wrote based off of other, existing scenes). For most of the script, characters and scenes, sometimes written by different authors, were merged and connected. Having a set of guidelines made it easier: use these characters from other scenes, give the male a lot to do and say, achieve an expressed tone, return it in a week. We even knew who had been cast already. I was on the bus on the way home, and thought of this painting. I came up with a likely scenario for the established characters. In addition to the painting, I thought of “The English Patient.” I could not get the image out of my mind - a man walking across miles of desert for someone he loved. I wrote it all out on the 22 Clark Northbound, moving through the city alone, late one night.

Edward Hopper, Hotel Room (1931)

At a rehearsal, the director called the male characters’ flowery descriptions something like “bad romance novel writing.” I suppose. When I heard the character saying these words in my mind, they were in earnest. Actually, it’s what I feel for the person I love.

(Taken to a bit of an extreme, of course.) But I would walk across the bottom of the ocean with no breathing apparatus to reach him if I had to do so.  I wouldn’t think twice. Who hasn’t felt as if they could walk for miles, days to reach someone they loved? Grand, impossible gestures seem logical. Describing these gestures, however can tip the scales from romance to unabashed cheesiness with an ounce. I guess the balance comes in intent.

I have always been drawn to those people who have a way with words, whose creative mastery of English trumps mine. I’m always happiest when I feel outmatched in wit or language. I also know it’s dangerous. Those who rely heavily on words to fill the spaces between people, or the spaces they create? Sometimes they have little else to offer. In her second scene, Marla uses ornate, heightened language. When I wrote this, I wanted to suggest either these two were already well-matched (perhaps she could keep up with his witticisms at their first meeting), or she co-opted his poetic tendency altogether. Maybe it’s the one thing she’s gotten from him, besides sleepless nights and memories. I’ve never decided.

I guess it’s too obvious to write about disconnection when referring to an Edward Hopper painting. But here, again, are two characters, desperate to connect - so much so they take great personal risks. Connection is found only in certain corners, certain moments. It is lost as quickly as it is found.

Edward’s wife, Josephine Nivison-Hopper, took notes on many of his paintings. I have read she wrote the subject in “Hotel Room” is looking at a train ticket, trying to decide whether or not to stay in the city or go back to her hometown. The way her shoulders are bowed and her expression downturned, she’s clearly at some kind of crossroads. Words are usually inadequate in those moments. Likewise, any words I write are woefully inadequate in the face of what Hopper’s images convey so simply, so powerfully.

“If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” - Edward Hopper