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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Since its inception in 1974, L.A. Theatre Works, a nonprofit radio production company, has built up a sizable catalogue of ensemble-cast productions in which major name actors (including the likes of Richard Dreyfuss, Kelsey Grammer and Jacqueline Bisset) perform classic and contemporary plays. Typical is this famous Guare work, which stars Alan Alda, Swoosie Kurtz and Chuma Hunter-Gault and is directed by Jay Sandrich. Though on tape, the production still sounds more like theater than anything else: it's all in the timing. Recorded before a live audience, in the open-miked fidelity one can sense the ambient space surrounding the actors, the charge of excitement sparking between them. The opening scene, with its New York City society dinner party, sets the overall tone of clever talkiness (here, Alda and Kurtz especially shine). When a young African-American stranger arrives at the door, claiming to be the son of actor Sidney Poitier, the plot takes some wonderfully unexpected turns. As with other L.A. Theatre Works programs, this is especially well suited for would-be actors, as the tape draws attention to the mechanics of Guare's play itselfAand to the role played by a skilled cast in animating that material. Recommended for libraries and general audiences alike. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This new effort is an excellent production of Guare's famous play. When a young man enters the Fifth Avenue home of Flanders and Ouisa Kittredge claiming to be a friend of their children and son of actor Sidney Poitier, the couple is charmed by his manners, wit, and intelligence. When the Kittredges discover that "Paul" isn't all he claims to be, they find themselves stuck between embarrassment and fascination. Alan Alda and Swoosie Kurtz portray the Kittredges convincingly, with Kurtz's performance particularly effective, as she captures Ouisa's empathy and simultaneous desire not to get too involved with an obviously disturbed person. Chuma Hunter-Gault sensitively portrays the con man who manages to change the Kittredges' lives irrevocably. A few moments in which it becomes difficult to distinguish among characters' voices are all that mar a fine production. This will be welcome to students, lovers of the theater, and even more traditional fans of audiobooks. Recommended.
-Adrienne Furness, Genesee Community Coll., Batavia, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
-Adrienne Furness, Genesee Community Coll., Batavia, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
A painting revolves slowly high over the stage. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
A painting revolves slowly high over the stage. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Six Degrees,
By
This review is from: Six Degrees of Separation (Paperback)
I was introduced to this play about a month ago when I was cast in the role of Kitty, a friend of the Kitteredges. Intending to only skim the script and hilight my lines, I read the entire play in one sitting. From the opening scene to the closing, I felt like I was being included in the characters' experiences.The characters' personalities are also quite deep. After the first couple of times that I read through the script, I realized that there was so much more to the characters than what was written on the page. Guare does a wonderful job of letting the reader use his imagination and create his own backgrounds and deeper personalities for the characters. This play is an intellectual-artsy type for those who are willing to examine their trust for strangers.
3.0 out of 5 stars
cruel fun,
By
This review is from: Six Degrees of Separation (Audio CD)
Even if this play were worthless, which it is not quite, the concept that gives it its title has passed into the American lexicon, so it will long be remembered, if in name only. Supposedly based on true events, it tells the story of a New York City couple, Flanders (Flan) and Louisa (Ouisa) Kittredge, unsuccessful private art dealers who are desperately clinging to their Manhattan socialite lifestyle. Flan is cash strapped and badly needs to turn up some money to complete a two million dollar deal. One night, as they are hitting up a South African acquaintance for some money, a young black man, Paul, turns up on their doorstep. He claims to be a Harvard classmate of their kids who has just been mugged in Central Park. Any initial resistance they may feel towards this stranger evaporates when he cooks them and their guest dinner, expounds on Catcher in the Rye, reveals that his father is Sidney Poitier, and intimates that he might be able to get them all jobs as extras in his Dad's movie version of Cats. He plays their liberal guilt and their social climbing hunger to perfection and makes such an impression on the South African that he agrees to invest with Flan on the art deal. The grateful couple allow Paul to stay overnight in their apartment while they go out.His implausible story begins to unravel though when, returning early to their apartment, they find him in bed with a male street hustler and throw them both out. Flan takes particular relish in telling the story of their visitor and they are surprised to find that Paul has similarly hustled a number of their friends. They, especially Ouisa, become obsessed with finding out who Paul really is; apparently just a street hustler. He drops back into their lives several times, and they are tangentially involved in a scandal when Paul seduces and dumps a young man who then commits suicide. Most of the philosophizing in the play, with the exception of the Six Degrees concept, is fairly silly and the people are immensely annoying. There are some funny lines, but most of the humor comes from watching the loathsome Kittredges humiliate themselves repeatedly. It is perhaps the ultimate comment on the kind of people that the play portrays that none of it is very believable. Despite the nonfiction origins, it strains credulity to believe that people who are this shallow actually exist. I'd recommend it mildly, but only for its cruel treatment of a group of people I don't much like--upper class NY City liberals. The LA Theatre Works production has the added bonus that Flan is played by Alan Alda in a near self caricature. GRADE : C
2.0 out of 5 stars
"Once I was blind...",
By Bastiat (Montreal) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Six Degrees of Separation (Paperback)
My thanks to Mr. Guare. Had he not portrayed the rich as fatuous dupes, I might still envy them.
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