Ensemble Theatre Group

When David Hampton—the notoriously raffish con man who inspired Guare’s most popular play—died of AIDS complications in 2003, The New York Times quoted one of his last victims. The man had gone on a date with Hampton in 2001, during which the swindler managed to finagle $1,000 for a phony September 11 celebrity benefit before sneaking off, leaving his date with a $423 dinner tab. But “Honestly?” said the mark. “It was one of the best dates that I ever went on.”

Evidently, Hampton maintained his beguiling knack for separating urbanites from their money long after Guare dramatized, in 1990, Hampton’s most impressive scam, that of persuading members of Manhattan’s upper crust to take him in as the son of Sidney Poitier. Of course, Guare is interested in more than the attractions of one con artist; he uses the story both to poke fun at and commiserate with his real subject: the well-meaning but somewhat lost liberal rich.

The play’s success in performance hinges on whether we buy that Paul (the Hampton character) could charm the pants and pocketbook off pretty much anyone. On that account, Marra’s otherwise lively production fails: Engelen brings to the character a childlike sincerity that justifies the older characters’ parental concern for him, yet there’s nothing irresistibly seductive about his Paul. As the principal scamees, Griffith and Steinhagen display some comic timing but lack the necessary air of patrician breeding troubled by liberal guilt.

Read more: http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/theater/69269/six-degrees-of-separation-signal-ensemble-theatre-at-chopin-theatre-theater-review#ixzz0ah3XrnwH