This
comedy-drama is the story of a young black con man, Paul, who
insinuates himself into the lives of a wealthy New York couple
by claiming to know their children and needing their help. However,
as Paul’s stories unfold, the couple begins to investigate
Paul and his lies threaten to catch up with him. |
|
New York, 1990. By this point in
American history, the country had already gone through two major
world wars, two largely unpopular foreign deployments, and were
months away from the Gulf War. Internally, the US had already
experienced decades of racial tension and segregation, while a
country halfway across the world was finding an end to its own
long struggle with Apartheid. Nelson Mandela had just been released,
and the world finally seemed to find some semblance of peace.
At home, the American homosexual community had just started to
realize the devastating impact caused by the AIDS crisis, while
simultaneously dealing with a sudden surge in both physical and
social hostility from the American public. Crime rates were high,
unemployment decreasing, no one had yet discovered the internet,
and the world seemed to be hurtling at an alarming pace towards
its future.
With all this going on, it is not surprising that the world almost
missed a nineteen year-old boy named David Hampton. Hampton, by
posing as the son of Sidney Poitier, robbed an unknown number
of people, including the likes of Melanie Griffith, Gary Sinise,
Calvin Klein, and most notably Osborne Elliot—the Dean of
the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Unlike Six Degree’s
Paul, Hampton stole thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise
from each of his victims. After being released after a four year
sentence, Hampton was in and out of prison until his death in
2003. Finding inspiration in Hampton’s story, John Guare
wrote Six Degrees of Separation, which opened in May
of 1990 to critical acclaim. Spawning a similarly successful film
in 1993, Guare’s (and in some part Hampton’s) story
has continued to intrigue audiences all over the world.
–Joel Kim-Booster |
