‘Separation’ Offers Clever Treatment of Fame and Folly

At first glance, John Guare’s Tony-winning “Six Degrees of Separation” is a well-wrought, clever look at one shade of the personality of our time--the 15-minutes-of-fame syndrome, with side comments on those who flock around these quarter-hour stars, and how easily they can be fooled.

A second look, as afforded in a generally sparkling revival at Stages, shows a playwright who has grown immensely over the three decades of his fame.

Under Gary Krinke’s bubbling direction, Guare’s writing almost sounds like the verbal equivalent of a Vivaldi concerto, rolling briskly from intricate riff to soaring melody. It’s the kind of superior writing that playwrights are slowly coming back to.

Ouisa and Flan are an upscale Manhattan couple trying to pull off the purchase and resale of a Cezanne painting, a get-rich-quick sort of scam.

Suddenly a young man named Paul is brought into their lives. He’s been mugged in Central Park and is familiar with everything there is to know about Ouisa and Flan’s world, including their collegiate children, whom he says are friends of his.

He also tells them that he is Sidney Poitier’s son by his first marriage, and that he can get them hired as extras when his father directs the film version of “Cats.”

After inviting Paul to recover in their flat, Ouisa and Flan later come home to find him entertaining a male hustler, and his colorful fictional fabric begins to unravel. They discover they’re not the only ones who have been conned by Paul, and their varied reactions to the young man’s plight are the core of Guare’s dramatic statement.

Krinke keeps this all moving at breakneck speed, which highlights not only Guare’s writing but some excellent comic performances.

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In only two instances does he lapse from the general high quality, and both times the problem is purely technical, involving projection and vocal energy. These usually are not taught to today’s film-aimed acting students, and even in as small a space as Stages, this can cause problems.

Arlyn McDonald, as Ouisa, whose deft comic performance is one of the highlights in this staging, in one of her later monologues allows her voice to almost disappear without an overhead mike to pick it up. Christopher Sullivan, as half of a young couple from Utah that Paul also has conned, has a very long monologue explaining his suicidal despair that is so interior even a lip-reader would have trouble making it out.

Otherwise, Sullivan and especially McDonald are sharp and on target. Brian Kojac’s Flan, along with Ouisa, is hilariously smarmy and grasping, albeit totally likable, and their verbal pingpong game is always stylish. Louis Hale is particularly good as the smooth Paul, keeping the tempos bright and sparkling, but with a sense of poetry along the way, and only occasionally allowing us to see the really troubled youth behind the sham.

Jeff Castle is effective as the college student who really knows all these well-to-do people, and who has traded what he knows with Paul for sexual favors.

As other conned folk, Cynthia Ryanen, K.C. Mercer and Todd Langwell are just as opaque and unsuspecting as Ouisa and Flan, and all their college-kid progeny--Melanie Baker, Brandon Ryan Puleio, Teresa F. Blashaw and Patti Cumby--sparkle with youthful angst and a disrespect for their parents. Sullivan and Joy McCoubrey stand out as the gullible duo from Utah.

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* “Six Degrees of Separation,” Stages, 1188 N. Fountain Way, Anaheim. 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday. $10. Ends Feb. 6. (714) 630-3095.

Arlyn McDonald: Ouisa

Brian Kojac: Flan

Louis Hale: Paul

Bill Glassman: Geoffrey

Jeff Castle: Hustler/Trent

Cynthia Ryanen: Kitty

K.C. Mercer: Larkin

Todd Langwell: Dr. Fine

Brandon Ryan Puleio: Woody

Teresa F. Blashaw: Bev

Melanie Baker: Tess

Patti Cumby: Deena

Christopher Sullivan: Rick

Joy McCoubrey: Elizabeth

A Stages Entertainment Group revival of John Guare’s Tony-winning play. Produced by Brian Kojac. Direction/scenic design: Gary Krinke. Lighting design: Kirk Huff. Technical direction/sound design: Jon Gaw.