Literary Revisionism Cramps This Zelda

“My life was never dull,” says Zelda Fitzgerald (Lisa Pelikan) in “Only a Broken String of Pearls,” now at Theatre Geo in Hollywood. “I can’t stand boredom.”

Indeed, in this rather calculated one-woman play Willard Simms captures practically every highlight from the crowded life of Zelda, fabled wife of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and one of the leading flappers of the 1920s.

Set in a Baltimore institution--where an older but still spirited Zelda hopes to convince doctors that her mental breakdown is minor and temporary--the play summons up memories of stylish jazz age soirees, Scott’s homoerotic friendship with Ernest Hemingway, artsy bull sessions with Gertrude Stein and so on. Zelda emerges as a high-strung, creative woman who was continually frustrated in her own efforts at self-expression.

This kind of literary revisionism, revealing the less-famous mate behind the famous author, has become fashionable of late, with biographers offering histories of women who influenced James Joyce, Bertolt Brecht and others.

Simms’ piece, unfortunately, often plays more like a biographical entry than a fully dramatized work of theater. Zelda races through a great deal of trivia but leaves many of her insights and impressions frustratingly underdeveloped. Because her mental illness provides the basis for the play, a deeper understanding of it would be especially helpful.

Under Jules Aaron’s low-key direction, Pelikan, a gifted stage veteran, is entirely believable and often very funny as this fragile Southern belle. When one latecomer was being seated on review night, the fine-featured actress shot an irritated glance at the malefactor and ad-libbed, “That could be considered rude.”

* “Only a Broken String of Pearls,” Theatre Geo, 1229 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays 2 p.m. Ends April 2. $18-$20. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.