Walterdale play explores human connections

Modern art dangles precariously in the lives of the characters in Six Degrees of Separation, a production now running at Walterdale Theatre that hammers at the hollowness of the American dream and its ever-expanding celebrity culture.

A double-sided painting by Wassily Kandinsky is suspended over the main room of Flan and Ouisa Kittredge’s New York penthouse suite. One side of the painting reflects a controlled geometric study, the other an abstract splash of chaotic colour.

The Kittredges acquire art, and the Kandinsky is an unspoken reflection of both their private and public lives. Like the double-sided canvas, this affluent, middle age couple with liberal leanings masks a hodgepodge of turbulent emotions behind their ritzy façade. Pretence is the lifeblood of their class.

However, deception further enters their lives in the form of a destitute, young black man, claiming to be a friend of their children and the son of iconic actor Sidney Poitier. He uses his blackness to skilfully insinuate himself in their empty white world of money, influence and dysfunction.

Paul bursts into the Kittredges’ apartment one night as they are trying to close a $2 million art deal. He is bleeding from a wound he says he got from a mugger.

The core of the Kittredges’ life is collecting art and Paul is a complete work of art – a self-invented swindler who keeps adding details to his personality from people he meets.

Playwright John Guare bases his script on a real-life case in the eighties, when a young, articulate black man adopted the persona of Sidney Poitier’s son and suckered sophisticated Manhattanites enticed by the lure of celebrity.

In the play, Paul offers the Kittredges a part in a fictionalized film Cats, a gesture that clearly delights them in spite of their calculated sophistication.

Americans, Guare suggests, are overly dazzled with fame and fortune. Both Paul and his “patrons” are morally alike. The Kittredges are merely in a wealthier class, one that treats the paintings of great masters as a product to support their lifestyle.

Guare exposes the values of posh Americans and some of his satire hits targets dead centre. But the playwright also injects a pastiche of ideas that never seem to reach fruition.

One example is when Paul gives a discourse on the transforming power of the imagination or when Ouisa breaks the fourth wall and hashes out the idea of six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on the planet. Perhaps Guare meant this as a profound discourse. It comes across as confusing.

While the script is at times puzzling, there are several standout performances to acknowledge. Othello (Jordy) Kieto as the trickster Paul is laid-back with a soft singsong voice that creates just the right touch of neediness and guile. Right to the end, it is difficult to tell whether Paul is a victim or villain.

Nicole Lemay as Ouisa finds a good balance as the glossy snob estranged from her children who reveals cracks in her emotional and spiritual being as she falls under Paul’s spell. And she receives strong support from J. Nelson Niwa as her smooth art dealer husband.

Bob Klakowich in the smaller role of Dr. Fine is a standout as the indignant mark saddled with mouthy kid, and St. Albert’s Mark McGarrigle makes an impression as the exasperated detective dealing with an upper class concerned with appearance rather than substance.

Director Louise Large has deftly guided the production and created a 90-minute show that is sharp and funny. However, Guare says very little that is new. And several folks walking out of the theatre were heard wondering if they’d just witnessed a classic or a con.