Happy Hour

Ethan Coen uses the title "Happy Hour" ironically for his program of three one-act plays, produced by Atlantic Theater Company at Signature Theatre Company's Peter Norton Space. Each piece focuses on unrelieved anger and depression. Unfortunately, the experience is a less than happy one for the audience as well as the characters. Coen, who in collaboration with his brother Joel has created some of the darkest and wittiest films of the past few decades, here gives us three screams of pain and fails to develop them beyond the initial anguished syllables. His humor derives from the unbridled intensity with which his protagonists express their pessimistic view of humanity, but it soon becomes tedious when there is no variation in their screeds. It's like listening to the monster parents in Coen's "Talking Cure," his contribution to Broadway's "Relatively Speaking," for more than two hours.

In the curtain raiser, "End Days," we see a blowhard barfly named Hoffman pontificating on his paranoid apocalyptic theories at a tavern and at home. That's about it as far as plot goes for this one—20 minutes of ranting. As Hoffman, Gordon MacDonald does his level best to make the monologues of mayhem compelling, but this is the kind of nutcase you'd avoid if he were sitting on the next barstool.

"City Lights," a Coen version of a romantic comedy, follows. Misanthropic, boorish musician Ted meets whiny, idealistic schoolteacher Kim because they have similar phone numbers. The details of this chance encounter are too complex and convoluted to waste space on. Suffice it to say, the author makes both leads equally unattractive and we end up not caring what happens to either.

The program concludes with "Wayfarer's Inn," which doesn't entirely succeed but does contain the only interesting sequence of the evening. This segment centers on a bizarre story, about a blowfish and a knife, told in a Japanese restaurant. Each of the three diners—girlfriends Gretchen and Lucy and traveling salesman Buck, who is out to bed one of them—interprets the tale from a different perspective, revealing elements of their characters. Gretchen sees it through rose-colored romantic glasses, Lucy thinks it expresses the essential tragedy of the human condition, and Buck says it's a simple action story. These contradictory viewpoints provide the scene with much-needed conflict. There is also an intriguing surrealistic element, with a waitress periodically entering to bark orders at her customers in Japanese.

Unfortunately, this vignette is a detour from the main focus, which is Buck's friend and co-worker Tony, who has remained at their bleak hotel room complaining of depression. Too much of "Wayfarer's Inn" consists of Tony's morose musings on the pointlessness of existence and Buck's counterarguments involving the primal pleasures of dinner and a show, followed by sex.

Atlantic artistic director Neil Pepe wisely keeps the staging from getting too broad, and in addition to MacDonald there are sharp portrayals from Clark Gregg, Lenny Venito, Cassie Beck, Ana Reeder, and Amanda Quaid. These inventive actors manage to fill in the subtext Coen does not provide.

Unfortunately, outside of that funny and chaotic dinner at the restaurant, nothing much happens during this melancholy "Happy Hour."

Presented by Atlantic Theater Company at Signature Theatre Company's Peter Norton Space, 552 W. 42nd St., NYC. Dec. 5–31. Tue.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Wed. and Sat., 2 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (No performances Sat. and Sun., Dec. 24 and 25, and Sat., Dec. 31, 8 p.m.; additional performances Mon., Dec. 19 and 26, 8 p.m., and Fri., Dec. 23, 2 p.m.) (212) 279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com. Casting by Telsey + Company.