Theater Review-Town Players More Than Hold Their Own With 'Proof'
Theater Reviewâ
Town Players More Than Hold Their Own With âProofâ
By Julie Stern
Having recently seen a remarkable production of David Auburnâs prize-winning drama Proof, it was with some trepidation that I went to see what the Town Players would do with it at Newtownâs Little Theatre. Happily it is a play that bears watching more than once, and even more happily, directors Larry and Suzanne Kinnear have done a very good job with it.
The story centers around Catherine, a young woman who gave up the chance to attend college in order to care for her mentally ill, widowed father. A University of Chicago professor who was universally recognized as the most brilliant mathematician of his generation, Robert developed paranoid schizophrenia, much like the protagonist of the movie A Beautiful Mind, and spent the last ten years of his life in frenzied, meaningless scribbling.
When Robert dies, shortly before Catherineâs 25th birthday, she is in a quandary about how to go on with her life. Despite her lack of education, she has inherited her fatherâs genius, but she fears that she is also susceptible to his madness.
Exhausted by grief, fear, depression and alcohol, she loses herself in vivid memories of
the âgood daysâ â her fatherâs lucid moments which illuminate the depth of their love for one another.
Into this situation come two intruders: Hal and Claire.
Hal is a 28-year-old newly minted PHD math professor. Because he admired Robert (who was once his thesis advisor during an eight-month remission from his illness), Hal wants to go through Robertâs notebooks in case they contain any undiscovered remnants of unpublished genius among the scribbling.
Claire is Catherineâs older sister, a bossy, high-powered New York Yuppie who left home when their father got sick and worked her way into a lucrative job as a currency analyst. While Catherine sacrificed her life to care for Robert, Claire stayed far away, sending home the money to pay the bills.
Having returned to Chicago for the funeral, Claire means to sell the house and bring Catherine back to New York, which, she declares, is a much more âfunâ place than Chicago. (It is possible that she is also planning to put Catherine in a mental institution there, where her âeccentricitiesâ can be tended to by âthe best doctors.â)
On the evening of Robertâs funeral, Hal and Catherine move toward a tentative relationship. She tells him the story of Marie Sophie Germain, a self-educated French woman who, in the 18th Century, was the most important female mathematician of all time, but who was able to have her work published only by doing it under a manâs name.
This foreshadows the dramatic crux of the story. Catherine gives Hal a notebook containing an original âproofâ of Germainâs theorem- a monumental mathematical achievement. When she tells him that it was she, herself, who did this work, Claire accuses her of lying, and avers that their father must have done it during his lucid period. Hal must decide who to believe and what to do.
Kristin Gagliardi positively shines in the role of Catherine. Brave, smart, frightened and bereaved, she takes refuge in foul-mouthed sarcasm to hide her despair. Getting neither respect for her ability nor understanding of her pain, she is a totally believable and completely sympathetic heroine.
Chris Luongo is geekily sweet as Hal, the perpetual grad student who is neither as good a mathematician as he had hoped to be, nor a loyal enough lover to be able to trust without first seeing proof.
Tim Huebenthal looks a little young to be Robert but he endows the role with a large, bear-like presence and professorial charm that makes it easy to understand both the love between father and daughter, and the passion for mathematics that rages in the mind of true geniuses. He is also very good at portraying the heartbreaking transition from lucidity to insanity, as the loving father morphs into the quivering madman before his daughterâs stricken eyes.
Rachel Dalton plays Claire as a relentlessly insensitive manipulator, who it is very easy to dislike, making it clear that nobody in their right mind â or even their wrong one â ought to go to New York with her.
The Kinnear team has done a fine job of pacing the show. It moves very quickly, and all four characters have perfect command of their lines. In short, this is a chance for Newtowners to see an excellent play, at bargain prices, right here in town. Youâll be moved and entertained, and you donât have to like math.
This is a play about people, not numbers, and it is definitely worth going to.
(Performances continue weekends, including Thanksgiving weekend, on Friday and Saturday at 8. There is also a matinee scheduled for Sunday, November 26, at 2 pm.
Tickets are $15 for the evening shows and $12 for the matinee. Call 270-9144 for reservations and/or directions to the theater.)