In this acclaimed play, Naomi Iizuka has created a carefully textured
exploration of the meaning of truth--not just in the art world but in
the human heart as well. Taking its title from the series of
woodblock prints by nineteenth-century Japanese artist Hokusai
(which, contrary to their label, consists of 46 images of Mount
Fuji), 36 Views unfolds in a series of 36 scenes and moments. The
story has several threads, but at its heart is fairly simple. An art
dealer and an art historian discover what they think is an ancient
manuscript--a priceless Japanese pillow book--and try to learn
whether it's authentic. Their search becomes an erotic game of greed,
love, and mental hide-and-seek as the play explores the relationships
between feelings and words, objects and photographs of objects,
antiques and perfect copies, and a woman's heritage and her physical
features. When first performed--at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in
California--the play was hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as
thoughtful, humane, poetically phrased and staged with intricate,
shimmering beauty it spun a multi-textured web that became completely
engrossing. As Iizuka weaves her magical blend of old-fashioned
orientalism and modern realism, art-speak and academic jargon,
pillow-book poetry and punk rhetoric, she probes the nature of truth
and authenticity. Each facet of her 36 Views offers another
perspective on the art and artifice of our lives.
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