SOURCE: Plunka, Gene A. “Six Degrees of Separation.” In The Black Comedy of John Guare, pp. 186-202. Newark, Del: University of Delaware Press, 2002.

In the following essay, Plunka provides a detailed analysis of Guare's Six Degrees of Separation, lauding it as one of the most effective examples of black comedy.

Six Degrees of Separation marks Guare's finest theatrical achievement, in which the idea of a spiritually dysfunctional society in need of viable connections with self and others is best illustrated through farce and black comedy. Guare wrote the play relatively quickly in 1989 with the intent of staging it at Lincoln Center. He passed it on to Lincoln Center's director, Gregory Mosher, and its executive producer, Bernard Gersten, who had successfully produced the revival of The House of Blue Leaves there in 1986. They were so impressed with Guare's script that they began plans for production without benefit of readings...