The Story behind the Play - a brief summary
Six Degrees of Separation is a witty, biting, yet ultimately sincere commentary on what
drives people: the desire for money, fame, social standing, comfort, and, for the lucky,
a desire for meaningful human connection.

Guare based the premise of his play on an actual incident. A young African-American
man gained access to the homes of upper-class New Yorkers by pretending to be the
son of actor Sidney Poitier, but the creation of the play is an imaginative tour de force.

Guare uses the props of the late twentieth century, such as social issues and art, to
create a comprehensive picture of a fragmented society, one in which those simple six
degrees that bind people together are overlooked, blatantly ignored, and, very
occasionally, celebrated.

“I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people.
Six degrees of separation... The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice,
just fill in the names. We are bound to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people.”