Playwright John Guare’s Pulitzer Prize-winning story about a young African American con man who dupes two couples into believing wild tales (starting with him being the son of actor Sidney Poitier and ending in various tragedies) puts at its core a concept first proposed by Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy that everyone on the planet is linked to everyone else by five people (the sixth being the other linked person). Later adapted into a film, the concept of six degrees seeped into the popular consciousness with its most kitschy rendering appearing in the parlor game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, in which each linked actor receives his or her “Bacon Number.” Directed here by Gary Krinke, who is probably also linked to Kevin Bacon, Guare’s tale is a fascinating study in strained relationships and the desperate need to believe anything in order to connect and reconnect that stays with you long after the curtain has dropped.
Fridays-Sundays. Starts: Feb. 7. Continues through Feb. 23, 2014
