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Updated: March 24, 2009, 11:27 am	Share    Print    Email

Towards the end of the play three of the families victimized by Paul all realize that he is a common thread that links them all together. Since Paul claimed to be friends of their children, the parents question the kids on the nature of their relationships with the supposed son of Sidney Poitier. Obviously, the kids have no recollection of any Paul at their schools and so an excellent performance of a screaming match between parents and their adolescent offspring ensues. Images courtesy of Tom Kochie

Quogue - Opening night for John Guare's play "Six Degrees of Separation" saw the curtain rise to a packed house at the Hampton Theatre Company (HTC) in Quogue as the lights dimmed and theater-goers prepared for 90 minutes of non-stop entertainment.

The play, which takes place in 1990 in an apartment on the upper East side of Manhattan overlooking Central Park, centers around the character Paul played by Christopher Burris; a charming young black man who is purporting to be the son of Sidney Poitier and school friends of the young man whose parents he ultimately ends up conning.

After being discovered as a fraud by Ouisa and Flan, Paul ends up deceiving other couples, like Rick (Nicholas Masson) and Elizabeth (Kelly McGoldrick), a young naïve couple from Utah aspiring to be actors in New York City.

The show begins in the living room of said apartment, with an exchange between the primary protagonists Ouisa, played by Cheri Wicks, and her husband Flan, played by Andrew Botsford, a stereotypical well-off couple whose marriage is based largely on social status rather than personal compatibility - a theme that figures largely in the arc of the plot.

The story commences with Flan, a fly-by-night art dealer who is primarily concerned more with making profitable deals as a middle man than he is with the nature of his work, strategizes with Ouisa to smooth talk a potential investor and friend from South Africa named Geoffrey to finance the upcoming trade of a Cezanne to some Japanese businessmen. Right from the beginning it is obvious to the audience that their relationship - and the majority of the relationships throughout the play - is characterized by superficial dysfunction, made less negative and staid through numerous wry and witty asides to the audience. Suddenly their dealings are interrupted by a well-dressed young black man who bursts in claiming to be friends of their adult children, pleading for help after allegedly having been mugged in Central Park.

Instantly falling for Paul's well practiced charm and social graces, the evening starts out being a rousing success, with Ouisa and Flan gaining the financial support of Geoffery, thanks in part to Paul's charming persona, the couple offers Paul a place to stay for the night, and everyone goes to bed serendipitously satisfied prematurely painting too perfect a picture for everything not to end up going horribly awry.

One aside in the play centers around how Paul learned the personal secrets of the families he deceives, here Trent (Andrew Stein) seduces his soon to be protégé Paul, as he gives away the secrets of his friends families for sexual favors.

Later that morning, Ouisa catches Paul in the apartment with a young male prostitute, indicating that there is more behind his story than originally advertised. Through several on stage asides by Paul and other characters, ranging from Ouisa and Flan's children and their friends to a New York City Detective and Paul himself, it is made clear that Paul is nothing more than a fraud, who has been heavily coached by a prep school companion about their son and daughter, with personal details of Ouisa and Flan's life, but also that Paul has pulled the same act with several well-to-do families all within their circle of friends, as well as with a young, struggling and intensely naïve couple from Utah whose only connection to the Upper East Side high society comes through a mutual connection to Paul.

Plot lines aside, the crux of the play centers around a dichotomy of the impersonality of the interpersonal relationships between both people who know each other only by virtue of their social status, and those that never would have met if not for Paul's influence by juxtaposing them simultaneously in a way that reflects what is colloquially known as the six degrees of separation theory, which in the context of this play, ends up being no more than one degree.

If the plot sounds complex, it's because it is, portraying the realistic nature of human relationships, especially when complicated with the trappings of social status. This complexity is achieved not only through the convoluted dialog permeated with frequent asides that are privy only to the audience, but also by the fact that the play features a cast of 16 - a tall order for any director.

Flan (Andrew Botsford), Ouisa (Cheri Wicks), Paul (Christopher Burris) and Geoffery (Kyle Cranston) listen intently as Paul begins to con the group into believing his tale about being the son of Sidney Poitier.

As explained by the director and Executive Director of the HTC, Sarah Hunnewell, the size of the cast presented an initial obstacle for their performance of the production. "The play was actually suggested to me by one of our patrons," she related after the performance. "I hesitated for a long time because firstly it has a cast of 16, which is always a daunting prospect and also because I never thought I would find a good, young black actor to cast as Paul out here, but of course I put notices up in New York City and got hoards of great black actors, because it's one of the best roles for a young actor that there is so we didn't have any trouble there, and amazingly we found great people for all the roles."

The cast, which features actors both young and old, some making their stage debuts and other long-time veterans of both the HTC's stage and on and off Broadway productions, did an exceptional job handling the rigors and complexities of the performance. "Doing this play was a big challenge, but we really enjoyed it and I really enjoyed directing it," Hunnewell said.

Perhaps some of the real credit is due to the young actors in the show, playing the roles of the adults children who were initially off at prestigious colleges and were the impetus for Paul's invasion of the families. As the devised plot is central to the action, their role (as is often the role of ungrateful and immature children) was to hold a mirror up to their parent's hypocrisy, emphasizing it with their own bratty idiosyncrasies.

By the end of the performance, it is made clear that even a big city like New York really isn't so big and that despite the apparent interconnectedness between friends in similar social circles, there is actually a wide chasm of presumption between those relationships. This realization ultimately comes only for Ouisa, who eventually understands that "every person is a new door opening up into a new world," and that a bond can be created between socially isolated people based on the trivial and intrinsically superficial interjection of one troublesome character - Paul. All this hinges on the fact that the people we presume to be closest to us, can in fact be no closer than complete strangers. Surely the indicator of well-crafted art, whether it is a play or a painting, is how well it can reflect one's personal perspective back towards oneself, revealing a truth that we are either unwilling or unable to acknowledge about ourselves. In that regard, "Six Degrees of Separation" as performed by the HTC was a complete success, providing not only entertainment, but also serving as a social reminder that people in all walks of life are only as distinctly separated as they choose to think they are.

 • "Six Degrees of Separation" will be presented from March 19 through April 5 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m. Ticket prices are $22 for adults, $20 for seniors (on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays) and $10 for students under 21. Group discounts are available upon request. For further information or to reserve seats, call the HTC at 631-653-8955, email hamptontheatre@optonline.net or visit www.hamptontheatre.org.