It's the kind of story that would be discarded as nonsense.
Wealthy, WASPy New Yorkers open their homes and wallets to a young black man claiming to be the son of actor Sidney Poitier. Sure.
But it's one of those "stranger than fiction" stories that really did happen. And it happened to friends of prize-winning playwright John Guare, who turned their tale of woe into the hit play "Six Degrees of Separation."
The comedy-drama opened this weekend at the Smith Theatre and will be presented again Friday, Saturday and Nov. 20 by the Rep Stage Company, Columbia's professional acting group in residence at Howard Community College.
Every aspect of the 90-minute play, from story line to staging, is so distinctive that it would take two viewings to appreciate its brilliance.
The story opens in the early 1980s in New York City with high-rolling art dealer Flan Kittredge and his chic wife, Ouisa.
They're rich, they're liberal and they live in an ivory tower. Their elitism does not prepare them for the fraud they encounter. In fact, it leads them right into it.
The two saunter about their luscious Manhattan co-op, drinks in hand, bantering cleverly about a $2 million art deal they hope to clinch.
They are meeting with a businessman from South Africa whom they hope will finance the deal.
Mentions his father
As they are about to have dinner, the doorman brings in a bleeding young black man. Claiming to be a good friend of the couple's children at Harvard, he says he was just mugged while strolling through Central Park. As the couple tends to him, he also mentions that his father will be flying into town the next morning to direct a movie version of the musical "Cats." His father, he adds, is Sidney Poitier.
Hopelessly star-struck, the couple invite Paul to dinner. They listen to him rattle off details about their own lives and Dad's lean years and successful movie career.
Paul acts like them and talks like them, bantering just as cleverly. They chat intellectually about the two-sided Kadinsky artwork hanging in the living room and author J. D. Salinger.
Paul then lapses into a soliloquy drawn from the novel "Catcher in the Rye."
"I believe the imagination is the passport we create to take us into the real world," he says.
Everyone at dinner, especially Ouisa, is so taken with Paul that he is invited to spend the night and given $50 to tide him over until his father arrives.
The merriment ends abruptly when Ouisa finds Paul in bed with another man the next morning.
Later, when friends of the couple stop by to tell the Kittredges that they are going to be cast in "Cats" after meeting the son of Sidney Poitier, the couples realize they all have been duped by Paul.
The play follows the effects of the fraud, especially on Ouisa, who is so emotionally isolated, especially from her obnoxious children, that she finds herself drawn to the likable Paul, a smooth-talking, yet sympathetic character searching for family and identity.
A real-life drama
The real-life story, which hit the New York Times 11 years ago, involved Osborn Elliott, who was then the dean of Columbia University's School of Journalism; his wife, Inger; and three other wealthy couples. The Elliotts visited Mr. Guare and said to him, "Have we got a story for you," a line that found its way into the play loosely based on their story.
"Six Degrees," produced in 1990, won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Obie and the Dramatists Guild's Hull Warriner Award, all for best play. Last year, Mr. Guare adapted it into a screenplay.
"The play is fascinating," said director Bill Graham Jr., formerly of Columbia, who directed five productions at Smith Theatre and was the producing director at Olney Theater for 12 years before he moved to New York last spring.
"It's an odd mix of drama, social commentary and farce," he said. "There are very few plays like that. Most dramas don't fly at a farce-like pace. It's a comedy, but a very intelligent comedy."
Easy to dupe
The sophisticated production, which takes jabs at liberal guilt and racism, overflows with metaphors begging to be analyzed.
"The two sides of the painting are the other ways of looking at things," explained Valerie Costantini, who plays Ouisa and is the Rep Stage Company's producer.
"If you only look at one way, you're very limited. You have to look at the other side, at the other world we live in.
"That's why Paul is easily able to dupe the smart, sophisticated ++ New Yorkers. They considered themselves so liberal, but they are so open to this false liberalism. Their characters are not really looking at themselves. They only liked him because he acted white and because of the celebrity aura.
"Only Ouisa grows from this. Paul has opened a new world for her and she is willing to explore it. But not Flan, he is not going beyond his world."
The quick-paced play is so cleverly scripted that audiences will find themselves grabbing at every word. Dialogue is both witty and intellectual, scathing and heart-wrenching.
"There are no throw-away lines," Mr. Graham said. "Every line is ++ important."
Actors just stand up
The tight script and minimal props posed a challenge for the 18 actors in a play where characters speak out into the audience as if they're guests at a cocktail party, talk to each other on the phone without even holding a phone and appear onstage just by walking from their seats in the theater's front row.
"Guare pared away extemporaneous conversation," Mr. Graham said. "You don't need anyone dialing or saying hello or goodbye. You just hear what you need to hear for the conversation to progress. Guare picks up the action right at the moment.
"Instead of drawn-out scenes and props, the cast members just stand up. It's done to condense the story and simplify. The simplification leads to powerful images and Guare does it with words."
The performers, especially the leads, deliver such strong performances that you find yourself swept into their frail world.
Ms. Costantini is outstanding as the elegantly witty, smart and vulnerable Ouisa.
Arthur Laupus is equally impressive as Flan, who shows both the warm and detached side of the driven art dealer.
D'Monroe radiates charisma and sincerity as the seductively charming Paul.
Lisa Grant, Steve Hadnagy, Jeffrey LaSalle and John A. Tweel Jr. put on some of the play's funniest scenes as the disinterested and argumentative college kids.
Scott Harrison as Rick and Nguyen-Tu Tucker as Elizabeth are touching as the struggling, naive young actors from Utah, who lose everything to the persuasive confidence man.
All the performances convince us that trying to hold on to more than your wallet is not an easy task in a story as bizarre as the title suggests.
The Rep Stage Company will present "Six Degrees of Separation" at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 3 p.m. next Sunday in the Smith Theatre at Howard Community College. Tickets are $15, $12 and $10. Information: 964-4900.