Through July 25
For anyone who is too young to remember 1980s New York as an era of smug money, John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation is a fascinating history lesson. As New York Times theater critic Frank Rich wrote, Six Degrees is "a masterwork that captures New York as Tom Wolfe did in Bonfire of the Vanities." Based on the true story of a young African American con artist who not only pretends to be a prep-school friend of the children of several elite families but also the son of the barrier-breaking movie star Sidney Poitier, Six Degrees is a comedy of manners as well as a tragedy depicting how the best and the brightest lost a sense of themselves in the go-go 1980s. The play is exquisitely constructed with flashbacks and monologues where characters directly address the audience, and WTF's production is as sharp as Guare's precise and hyper-articulate text. As Ouisa Kittredge, the conflicted bleeding heart matron, Margaret Colin could be mistaken for Stockard Channing who originated the role at Lincoln Center twenty years ago, As the con-artist Paul, Ato Essandoh is so sincere that you believe that he is the son of Sidney Poitier even though you know better. All of the younger actors are especially fine as they rage against their gullible parents. Of course, the play has become a period piece. Today, Ouisa would not have to go downtown to the Strand bookstore to buy a biography of Poitier to find out if he had a son named Paul; she would check Wikipedia on her iPhone. And Poitier himself no longer holds the same sacred place as a black film star now that actors like Denzel Washington and Will Smith are among the biggest stars on the planet. Still, Six Degrees remains a humorous, poignant evisceration of the Upper East Side elite and 90 minutes of first-rate theater. Six Degrees of Separation at Williamstown Theatre FestivalWilliamstown, MA Through July 25
