Real life mixes with art fakery

A 19th century painting by Hokusai, “36 Views of Mt. Fuji,” inspired Naomi Iizuka’s play “36 Views,” a tantalizing examination of shifting perspectives in art and in life.

But don’t look for serene mountain vistas at the Laguna Playhouse. Although the play’s characters specialize in Asian art, “36 Views” uses the rough and tumble of the contemporary American art scene to examine the subjectivity of such concepts as “real,” “fake,” “beauty” and “love.”

Iizuka’s philosophical ruminations are presented within the context of a frequently surprising narrative involving highly literate and visually sensitive people whose training hasn’t immunized them from making colossal blunders.

Chay Yew’s staging adds a visual overlay that differs in significant details from the play’s original text, which was published in 2002.

The play opens at a reception in a gallery run by audacious art dealer Darius Wheeler (shaggy, charismatic Stephen Caffrey). Iizuka resists tagging him as a Wheeler-dealer, but that’s what he appears to be -- although, as with nearly everyone in this play, first appearances deceive.

Wheeler is regaling a somewhat skeptical East Asian literature professor, Setsuko Hearn (elegant Tess Lina), with tales of his swashbuckling adventures extracting classical Asian art from the jungle.

Behind the scenes of the party is Wheeler’s learned assistant John Bell (Jim Anzide), whose outward caution masks a strong creative streak, and the scruffy artist and art restorer Claire Tsong (Melody Butiu), who has a long and turbulent history with Wheeler.

The plot kicks into high gear with the news that the manuscript of a recently discovered 11th century Japanese “pillow book” -- a memoir by a remarkably candid woman of the court -- is being offered to the gallery for an appraisal.

Iizuka’s plotting leaves a huge hole at the play’s center. It’s hardly plausible that the professor’s department chairman (John Apicella) would hold a news conference to announce the discovery of the pillow book before he -- or the professor or Wheeler -- has seen the manuscript. On the day of the announcement, the professor and Wheeler have seen only photographs of the document, as well as a hasty translation by Bell. Even more amazing, the three experts demonstrate no curiosity about who owns the pillow book -- and apparently none of the journalists thought to ask that achingly obvious question.

An unscrupulous TV reporter (Shannon Holt), who’s on the lookout for art world scandals, at first completely ignores the murky origins of the pillow book, not even attending the news conference. Instead she tries to bait Wheeler with a complicated trap involving another work of art.

If you can suspend disbelief about these matters, most of the major characters are well drawn, in a way that interprets their contradictions as complexities. The actors are excellent, although occasionally too soft-spoken, as they attempt to fill in the details.

Anzide has the biggest challenge. Bell makes some of the play’s most radical decisions, but Iizuka provides less information about him than she does about the other three main characters.

At Laguna, however, Yew has provided Anzide’s Bell with a theatrical coup that diverts attention from his wispy motivations, serves as a grand finale to the first act and stirs up thoughts of David Henry Hwang’s 1988 play, “M. Butterfly,” which has somewhat similar themes and which Yew recently staged for East West Players.

Iizuka and Yew borrow some elements from Kabuki and other Japanese theater forms. When not onstage, the actors linger at the edge and provide sound effects; their sporadic clicking of wooden clappers eventually sounds overdone. Screens dominate Daniel Ostling’s set, and Lydia Tanji’s elaborate kimonos and masks are vital for a scene in which the pillow book comes to life.

Laguna’s “36 Views” brings an L.A. playwright’s work to life in her biggest production yet within easy driving distance of her hometown. The play was commissioned by L.A.’s now defunct A.S.K. Theater Projects but had been fully produced only in other parts of the country.

So it’s about time that L.A. is finally able to see “36 Views,” the first event of the Eclectic Orange Festival 2005. Although they’re hardly perfect, the play’s 36 scenes are certainly an engaging attempt to illuminate the evanescent nature of experience.

*

‘36 Views’

Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Ends: Jan. 30

Price: $45-$54

Contact: (949) 497-2787 or www.lagunaplayhouse.com

Running Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Stephen Caffrey...Darius Wheeler

Tess Lina...Setsuko Hearn

Jim Anzide...John Bell

Melody Butiu...Claire Tsong

Shannon Holt...Elizabeth Newman-Orr

John Apicella...Owen Matthiassen

By Naomi Iizuka. Directed by Chay Yew. Set by Daniel Ostling. Lighting by Jose Lopez. Costumes by Lydia Tanji. Music by Nathan Wang. Sound by David Edwards. Production stage manager Nancy Staiger.