A & E

Despite the title of its next production -- "36 Views" -- Quantum Theatre hopes to treat its audiences to 37.

The 36 views in playwright Naomi Iizuka's multifaceted story refers to the number of scenes in the play. It's also a reference to two famous series of 18th-century Japanese woodblock prints, in which the artist Hokusai depicted Mt. Fuji and three dozen Heian-era Japanese poetesses, one of whom may have inspired Iizuka's play.

The additional view that Quantum Theatre is offering is the one that will surround audiences when "36 Views" begins performances Thursday on a green expanse of lawn on the island known as Washington's Landing.

Quantum has placed the seating and the stage so that the play unfolds against a backdrop of pyramid-shaped trees and a gently sloping mound of lawn that -- at least to artistic director Karla Boos -- represents Mt. Fuji.

The island is surrounded by the Allegheny River, which can be seen from the top row of seats, says Boos, who is also the play's director.

She had both aesthetic and artistic reasons for choosing this spot and the island -- a floating world within sight of the real world and yet separated from it.

"At the heart of the play is the life of the characters that are complete creations. (Iizuka) draws us in in a way that affects the characters. Her world is the natural world, so this is a good place to put the play in a natural (setting) within this formal, manicured place," Boos says.

"I like the tension of putting people in places where what is real is undeniable and art is constructed in front of us," she says.

Iizuka's play is set in the contemporary world of art and antiques and the people who collect, curate, buy, sell, crave and love rare treasures.

It begins with the discovery of what's rumored to be a rare and ancient manuscript about the life and love-life of a Japanese royal courtesan. It could be worth millions to collectors and could alter the field of Asian antiquities and the careers of those who work in it.

Then, again, it could all be an elaborately constructed con.

"There is an elaborate, engrossing storyline. But that is not the work of art at the heart of the play. Naomi Iizuka plays with us a bit," explains Boos. "She makes it impossible to feel completely certain that you are right in your assumptions. I think she is a genius."

That tension between reality and artifice is at the heart of Iizuka's play, which is part romance, part mystery and part commentary on the fuzzy boundaries between what's real and what's authentic.

Iizuka's play will use screens and settings designed by Tony Ferrieri as well as lighting and projected images created by C. Todd Brown to create both the contemporary world and point up the drama's deliberate ambiguities.

The play opens with a projected image of a hanging scroll bearing the portrait of a Japanese woman. At other moments, the contemporary characters in the play are represented as figures in an antique woodblock print.

Characters sometimes materialize or disappear into darkness or as they might within a dream.

Sound designer Zachary Brown will employ sounds of ancient Japanese musical instruments to lend texture and point up transitions and plot points.

"The stage is a work of art and the players are brushstrokes within it," Boos says. "We have to come up with ways to honor that part of the play -- what (Iizuka) is getting at."

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