Playwright: John Guare. At: Eclipse Theatre Company at the Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln. Phone: 773-404-7336; $25. Runs through: Aug. 30
There is a breed of con artist rarely found in dramatic literature, but more prevalent in our culture than we'd like to think. These particular dissemblers carry out everyday activities under a false identity ( e.g., impersonating a police officer ) or initiate a scenario based in bizarre, albeit not wholly implausible, circumstances. Their elaborate shams are not fabricated in pursuit of material gain ( though they may steal, when necessary ) , but disruption of the status quo—a task to which they ascribe the benevolent motive of alleviating the boredom of citizens otherwise stagnating in complacency. What's most surprising is how often their dupes come to agree with this definition.
The catalyst in John Guare's 1990 play is one of these low-level sociopaths. His alias is that of a Hollywood celebrity's son, his scenario is the aftermath of a mugging, and his targets are the rich parents of absentee children. After gaining entrance to Ouisa and Flan Kittredge's swanky apartment, the preppy youth claiming Sidney Poitier as his estranged sire—young "Paul" is African-American, you see—proceeds to ingratiate himself with conversation, credentials and accomplishments geared to appeal to his rescuers' lifestyle-image. Eventually, however, he takes his fantasy too far and is ejected by his hitherto effusively hospitable hosts—who later find themselves fodder for his next scam.
"There are two sides to every story!" protests a recently gulled papa to his unsympathetic offspring—a theme echoed in the two-sided Kandinsky painting revolving in its wall alcove. Flan is content to shrug off his humiliation, but even when Paul is arrested—after choosing victims not privileged enough to be forgiving—Ouisa persists in ruminating on the dynamics of this intrusion and the deep-seated desires that render such swift and easy seductions possible. Is she merely continuing to fall for his line, or has her outlook on life been enlightened, if only temporarily, by this glimpse outside her own narrow cosmological assumptions?
It would be simple to play all these characters as affected comedy-of-manners stereotypes, and a few performances cannot help but emerge as exaggerated in the close-up quarters of the Greenhouse's second-floor studio. Under Steve Scott's capable direction, however, the principal roles of Ouisa and Paul are given their just due by Karen Yates and Michael Pogue ( the latter, after shedding his tendency to showboat ) . The result is a parable to suspend our pre-formulated judgments and force us to question our own readiness to face such circumstances as Guare proposes.
