John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation is the fascinating story based on real-life con artist, David Hampton. UAFS Theatre will perform Six Degrees of Separation March 16-19 at 7 p.m., with a matinee performance at 3 p.m. on Saturday, all in Breedlove Auditorium.
This comedic drama set in the late 80’s, highlights issues of race and sexuality through the New York City elite who are conned by the charisma and the prospect of being in a movie Cats by a man they believe to be the son of acclaimed actor Sidney Poitier.
Director and theatre professor, Sally Story, describes Six Degrees as “not only entertaining but poignant… as an audience member, you start to feel empathy for David Hampton, even though he’s manipulated all these people because he wants what all of us want: a need to belong”.
Six Degrees is as relevant now as it was when it was written. The timing of this particular production follows the death of Sideny Poitier, who Six Degrees describes as a “barrier breaker of the fifties and sixties”, who died in January and an actual movie production of Cats in 2019.
Six Degrees is “a play that isn’t afraid to discuss societal problems, and has a story to tell and will tell it unapologetically” says Malcum Nobles who plays Flanders Kittredge.
As the characters in the play piece together their connections to track down the con artist, his lies begin to catch up with him. Daniel Myers, who plays the character based off Hampton, invites all to "come see how we are all connected in life”, or as Guare writes, how “everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation. Between us and everybody else on this planet”.
Admission to Six Degrees of Separation is free for all UAFS students, faculty and staff, senior citizens, children under 18 years of age, college students, and military personnel and veterans with valid ID. General admission is $10.
Tickets should be purchased online at https://uafs.universitytickets.com/. This play contains mature language, sexuality, and subject matter that may not be suitable for small children.
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