John Guare b 1938 Six Degrees of Separation

John Guare (b. 1938) Six Degrees of Separation (1993) Self-identity Gender Race Society Cecilia H. C. Liu

Outline n n n n About the author Synopsis Title Characters Themes Literary Allusions Discussion Questions Works Cited Cecilia H. C. Liu

John Guare (b. 1938) n n Guare's freewheeling, satirical plays are the antithesis of “kitchen sink” naturalism, with darkly comic situations sometimes veering into violence. Frequently dealing with family relationships and people seeking escape from their daily lives, they flout dramatic conventions with such devices as monologues, asides, songs, and pantomime. Six Degrees of Separation, produced by the Lincoln Center Theater, won the 1990 New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Hull-Warriner Award and the Obie Award as Best Play. Cecilia H. C. Liu

Synopsis n Manhattan art dealers Ouisa and Flan Kittredge open their gilded penthouse doors to Paul, a charismatic young man who’s been stabbed and mugged in Central Park. Claiming to be a friend of their children — and the son of Sidney Poitier – Paul enchants his hosts with intoxicating stories and tantalizing gourmet dishes. But as Paul’s web of dropped names and near fame begins to unravel, he provides his hosts with much more than just the ultimate anecdote for good cocktail conversation–he sets in motion a series of events that will alter the course of their lives forever. Cecilia H. C. Liu

The title “Six Degrees of Separation” is the unproven theory that anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. n The title is meant to suggest that everyone on the planet is linked to everyone else by a chain of acquaintances no more than six people long -- a notion plausible only to a socialite living on the Upper East Side. n Guare expounds upon the uses of the imagination, liberal hypocrisy and even the violent subtext of The Catcher in the Rye. Cecilia H. C. Liu

Flan Kittredge n Flan Kittredge: an art broker who puts together ad hoc partnerships to buy secondtier works by modern masters (Cézanne, Matisse) that he quickly resells, to the Japanese currently, in order to realize huge profits, all without putting up any money himself. Cecilia H. C. Liu

Ouisa Kittredge n n Ouisa is charming and imaginative and self-aware, yet still in need of redemption. And she’s capable of redemption. Ouisa is the focus because she’s despondent about the lack of meaningful structure in her life. She sees herself as "a collage of unaccounted-for brush strokes, " "all random, " and when Flan declares himself a gamesman she says, "We’re a terrible match, " before, in the movie, walking out on his latest pitch at a society matron’s luncheon. (She walks out of the luncheon though not necessarily out of his life, but still, Flan is more of a Torvald than any other character in Guare’s plays. ) At the climax Guare gives Ouisa a speech about not becoming "human jukeboxes spilling out these anecdotes" as she and Flan have been for the entire length of the play, and that speech does state something like the kernel of the playwright’s intended meaning. Cecilia H. C. Liu

The Secondary Art Market n The Kittredges have three children away at school so they’re free to pursue Flan’s deals, which take them to society weddings and christenings, museum galas, luncheons, and such. This lucrative secondary art market has paid for a sumptuous lookout of an apartment on New York’s upper east side. Cecilia H. C. Liu

Paul n A gifted scoundrel, Paul soon wins over the Kittredges by admiring their two-sided Kandinsky. One side represents chaos, the other control; the scene determines which side is facing the room. Paul then wangles an invitation to stay overnight after he whips up a gourmet dinner for the Kittredges and their guest, a South African financier, who is so impressed with the young man that he starts planning an Afro-American film festival on the spot. Cecilia H. C. Liu

Paul’s Role A Connector—humanity/human condition It is Paul who connects the six right people together. He is the one who leads them to look into their own family, and urges them, by accident, to find their true and new selves. Paul unites six degrees of separation. n A Test: Paul functions as a test to all the characters in the play/film. People can be easily deceived by the charisma he represents. However, Ouisa sees Paul as a human, not just an anecdote, a case, an event “to dine out on” (Guare 117). n Cecilia H. C. Liu

Actor and Acting n n n An actor, Paul has no real identity. He can act anybody. Paul creates a whole new identity as a son of an artist who belongs to the upper class for himself. And that is what most people want to become—famous, educated, rich, with some prestigious family background. Yet, those art dealers are not artists, and they are fond of being a cat in the movie of Cats because this could make them feel more like an artist (actor). Therefore, in a sense, they do have the same thought as Paul does, and Paul becomes the person who could help them fulfill their dreams. Cecilia H. C. Liu

Themes: Interpersonal relationship n n In Six Degrees of Separation, the interpersonal relationship calls our attention, especially the relationships and the reactions between the main character Paul and all the other characters. Paul is actually a con man from low class who tries to forget his own identity, to get rid of his own miserable life, and to assume another imagined identity. So ironic is that Paul whom they call a liar is the one who connects the six people together, but they are not sure if Paul really exists at all. So who/what is Paul? Cecilia H. C. Liu

Themes: Painting and Colors—Art and Life n Flan Kittredge has this dream about painting and colors (45 -46). Potential and creativity are very much embedded in each individual being—such as in a child—but when we grow up, we gradually lose our originality and creativity. Numbness, indifference and spiritual paralysis by and by grasp people in the materialistic society. There at least two sides to view everything in our life. As the double-sided Kandinsky painting shows, examples of “chaos and control”—originality and imitation, disorder and form/structure, nightmare and dream—can be found in our daily life experience. Cecilia H. C. Liu

Themes: Chaos, Control n n Flan and Ouisa’s prize possession is a Kandinsky painted on both sides of the canvas, in contrasting styles, one "somber and geometric, " as Flan points out, and the other a wash of lines and shapes and colors barely holding together in an "image. “ Flan spins the painting for Geoffrey as Ouisa explains the connected meanings, "Chaos, control. Chaos, control, " a turn of phrase Guare wrote for the movie and which sums up the tension in the entire piece. Cecilia H. C. Liu

Kandinsky’s Order and Chaos (source) Cecilia H. C. Liu

Chaos, Control n What Ouisa discovers by the end is that if the "control" that governs her life as Flan’s helpmeet can’t accommodate a random but intense incursion like Paul’s, then the control isn’t meaningful, and thus isn’t control at all but chaos which passes for control by numbing her to the reality of the life they’re leading. Paul opens Ouisa up to this awareness even as he unintentionally but by the same means drives a wedge between her and Flan. Cecilia H. C. Liu

Chaos, Control n Flan calls himself a gambler but can deal with uncertainty only as long as he’s sure of the game he’s playing. The new idea of control that Ouisa envisions (training Paul as their apprentice, taking him permanently into their lives) seems to Flan, stuck in their previous outlook, as itself a kind of chaos. And it isn’t a question of their needing to break through class snobbery or racism, but, rather, rigidity and reluctance--the great inhibitors of comedy. Cecilia H. C. Liu

“God’s Gift—the Imagination” Paul states: “…the imagination is the passport we create to take us into the real world. I believe the imagination is another phrase for what is most uniquely us. …most of the time the faces we face are not the other guy’s but our own faces. And it’s the worst kind of yellowness to be so scared of yourself you put Paul: blindfolds on rather than deal with The yourself…. To face ourselves. That's imagination is the hard thing. The imagination. the place That’s God's gift to make the act of self we are all -examination bearable. ” (34) n trying to get to. Cecilia H. C. Liu

What imagination Paul refers to? n Yet, what kind of imagination does Paul mean? Does Paul “face” himself? What has he done with “God’s gift”? In Paul’s talk, he also brings forth Holden in Catcher in the Rye. How is the novel related to the action of the play? As Paul says in the play that Catcher in the Rye is “a touching story, comic because the boy wants to do so much and can’t do anything. Hates all phoniness and only lies to others. Wants everyone to like him, is only hateful, and is completely self-involved” (Guare 3233). How do you find this statement exactly pictures Paul himself? Cecilia H. C. Liu

hidden desire aroused n n Paul becomes increasingly absorbed by the role he plays, which leads to an inappropriately lurid turn that includes homosexual seduction, grand larceny and a lover's suicide. To the young man Rick who commits suicide, Paul could also represent one part of his mind. Paul arouses Rick's wanting of some changes and new experiences. Except that part (or an awareness of his hidden desire) can be so destructive that eventually brings an end to his own life. Cecilia H. C. Liu

Literary Allusions Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger n Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov n Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett n A Doll House by Henri Ibsen n Art and Artist Kandinsky n Cezanne n Matisse n Cecilia H. C. Liu

Discussion Questions 1. What motifs do you find in the play? 2. What kind of imagination does Paul mean? Does Paul “face” himself? What has he done with “God’s gift”? In Paul’s talk, he also brings forth Holden in Catcher in the Rye. How is the novel related to the action of the play? 3. Comment on the parent-children relationship and the children in Guare’s play. 4. As Paul states in the play: “Catcher in the Rye is a touching story. Comic because the boy wants to do so much and can’t do anything. Hates all phoniness and only lies to others. Wants everyone to like him, is only hateful, and is completely selfinvolved” (32 -33). How do you find this statement exactly pictures Paul himself? Cecilia H. C. Liu

Works Cited “Chaos, Control. ” Review of Six Degrees of Separation. 2 June 2005 <http: //www. weirdprofessortype. com/sixdegrees. html>. n Guare, John. Six Degrees of Separation. New York: Random House, 1990. n Kempley, Rita. Review of Six Degrees of Separation. 2 June 2005 <http: //www. washingtonpost. com/wpsrv/style/longterm/movies/videos/sixdegreesofseparationrke mpley_a 0 a 3 dd. htm>. n Cecilia H. C. Liu