Muses, Victims Gather on ‘Table Mountain’

Playwright-director Tony Tanner ignores the constraints of chronology in “The View From Table Mountain,” his dramatization of an imaginary meeting between Francoise Gilot, Frieda Lawrence and Vera Stravinsky, respectively the wives and/or mistresses of Pablo Picasso, D.H. Lawrence and Igor Stravinsky. Talk about significant others. These men were radicals of their generation--artistic visionaries who changed the face of contemporary culture forever. But it’s not easy living with genius, as is made clear when the women gather at Frieda’s rustic hideaway in Taos, N.M., for a rousing intellectual natter.

The men are now deceased (a bit of deliberate license on Tanner’s part, considering that Frieda died in 1956, and Picasso and Stravinsky lived on into the 1970s). However, that doesn’t stop these famous shades from wandering in and out of the action and adding their two cents’ worth to the conversation.

And what a conversation it is, a rushing stream of exposition, anecdote and philosophical musings that bursts its channel early on and continues unabated. Tanner casts the women as muses and victims, the men as fierce artistic narcissists whose single-mindedness borders on megalomania. However, Tanner never lapses into simple male-bashing--although at times that might actually enliven this Olympian, relentlessly highfalutin debate.

Among the cast, Angela DeCicco stands out as the earthy Frieda, a woman who sacrificed all, including her children, for her fractious and sexually ambivalent man. A Tony-nominated director, Tanner stages his own work with crisp purpose, although the cast’s polyglot of broad dialects and standard stage diction seems odd. It’s also odd that, beyond the occasional anecdote or two, Tanner largely ignores the wealth of fascinating gossip that has been amassed about his famous subjects. He may have loftier aims, but a little more juicy dish would not be amiss in this glorified coffee klatch.

*

* ‘The View From Table Mountain,” West Coast Ensemble, 522 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Ends Thursday. $15. (323) 525-0022. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.