Spring Break
Six Degrees aptly connects cast and audience
Issue date: 11/8/07
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John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation, performed this past weekend by the JHU Barnstormers, explores the idea put forth by various experiments and theories such as Stanley Milgram's small world study. The diverse body of work known vaguely as "six degrees of separation" concludes that all humans are separated by only six degrees; that is to say you know everyone through a chain of individuals only six people long. The premise lends itself to a script that relies heavily on monologues by the lead actors and some long-winded theoretical musing. However, the harmony of script and set as well as the talent of the supporting cast dominated the evening.
Set largely in the upper echelon of Manhattan society in the early '90s, Six Degrees stars sophomore Erica Bauman and junior Bill Fuller as Ouisa and Flan Kittredge. Fuller is natural as a successful, sophisticated private art dealer, and Bauman has unquestionable presence as his breezily charming if sometimes overzealous wife. They lead a seemingly perfect life in a Fifth Avenue apartment adorned with fine furniture and art, most notably a two-sided Kandinsky represented by a single empty picture frame hanging over the stage for the entirety of the play.
The play begins in media res, with the Kittridges frantically assessing their belongings after what one assumes is an attempted robbery. The frenetic pace of the first 15 minutes or so leaves the audience similarly bewildered, almost sacrificing important plot points to the infectious energy of the two leads.
We later learn that the cause of the Kittredges' fervor stemmed from a more bizarre encounter between the themselves and Paul, a young man who earlier stumbled, bleeding, into their apartment, interrupting a dinner party during which Flan was groveling (stylishly) for cash from a wealthy friend. The young man claims to be Paul Poitier, son of Sydney and friend of the Kittredges' children at Harvard. They take him in for the night and all are charmed by his stories of Hollywood and extensive monologues regarding imagination and The Catcher in the Rye.
Set largely in the upper echelon of Manhattan society in the early '90s, Six Degrees stars sophomore Erica Bauman and junior Bill Fuller as Ouisa and Flan Kittredge. Fuller is natural as a successful, sophisticated private art dealer, and Bauman has unquestionable presence as his breezily charming if sometimes overzealous wife. They lead a seemingly perfect life in a Fifth Avenue apartment adorned with fine furniture and art, most notably a two-sided Kandinsky represented by a single empty picture frame hanging over the stage for the entirety of the play.
The play begins in media res, with the Kittridges frantically assessing their belongings after what one assumes is an attempted robbery. The frenetic pace of the first 15 minutes or so leaves the audience similarly bewildered, almost sacrificing important plot points to the infectious energy of the two leads.
We later learn that the cause of the Kittredges' fervor stemmed from a more bizarre encounter between the themselves and Paul, a young man who earlier stumbled, bleeding, into their apartment, interrupting a dinner party during which Flan was groveling (stylishly) for cash from a wealthy friend. The young man claims to be Paul Poitier, son of Sydney and friend of the Kittredges' children at Harvard. They take him in for the night and all are charmed by his stories of Hollywood and extensive monologues regarding imagination and The Catcher in the Rye.
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