Bermuda Festival Review – Proof

[Bermuda Festival Review of "Proof"  by Alan C. Smith]

The Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts presented a very satisfying evening of live theatre with the opening night of the play Proof on Friday, February 10th.

Written by David Auburn, the play has garnered both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony for Best Play. It has also been made into a film starring Anthony Hopkins and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The actors, from Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre, which happens to be the oldest continuously operating theatre in the United States, did an impressive job of bringing the fascinating drama to life.

Set in the back porch of a house in Chicago, the play opens with a young woman, Catherine, sleeping on an Adirondack chair. She is awakened by her father, Robert, who has brought her a bottle of champagne to celebrate her 25th birthday. He expresses his concern for her because she has been sleeping her life away and has no job. She admits her fear that this birthday could mark the onset of the same mental illness that began to inflict him when he was around the same age. He assures her that she is far too self-aware to be crazy and she reminds him that he is dead and the very fact that she is talking to him might mean that her fears are not unfounded.

At this moment, Hal, a former student of her father who has been going through the dead man’s notebooks in hopes of uncovering revolutionary new mathematical proofs, emerges from the house. Initially the volatile and foul-mouthed Catherine is hostile but by the end of the scene Hal has charmed her into softening somewhat and allowing him to continue his quest. Their mutual attraction is obvious.

There is one other character in the play, Claire, Catherine’s bubbly but controlling older sister who has been living and working in New York supporting Catherine and their father financially. She has come back to attend their father’s funeral and settle any matters that need settling.

Both sisters have made sacrifices because of their father’s mental illness. Catherine, who has inherited her father’s mathematical genius and who may even have the potential to exceed his legendary accomplishments, quit university in order to care for him at home. There are the usual sibling resentments underpinning their interactions.

The play repeatedly jumps between the present and almost exactly four years before during a time when Robert’s mental illness appears to be in remission. Catherine, in the flashbacks, is preparing to go back to school.

The whole ensemble gave fine performances. Alex Keiper, was especially impressive as Catherine and effectively made the transitions from the bitter, tired, depressed and abrasive character in the present to the energetic, hopeful and dutiful daughter in the flashbacks.

Admittedly she has the meatiest character but she conveyed the horror and confusion of someone unsure of their mental stability very skilfully.

Krista Apple, as Claire, was also strong and, even though her character was essentially the villain, she was funny and I felt empathetic towards her. Claire had appointed herself the fixer in the family and would not allow herself to shy away from making hard decisions if necessary. She came across as someone who felt that she had done just as much as her sister to take care of their father. She had done with money what her sister had done with time.

I have no interest in mathematics and I was surprised to find a play that employed so much academic jargon in the dialogue so absorbing. Bill Van Horn and David Raphaely, as Robert and Hal, respectively spoke of their proofs and theorems with such passion that my interest never wavered. And the exploration of genius and madness coexisting in the same minds is always intriguing.

I will not divulge more of the plot because I think it is a play that every theatre lover should experience and there are some exciting surprises and twists to be discovered. I will say that even with the serious and heady subject matter the script is clever, funny and realistic and ultimately uplifting.

I enjoyed the direction, devised by Kate Galvin, especially the points where actors were talking with their backs to the audience. It added to the naturalistic and modernistic feel of the piece.

After the play there was a 15 minute discussion during which the audience was invited to ask the actors questions. The actors articulated the motivations and thought processes behind their characterizations as well as some of the preparation for the play which involved such things as talking with mathematicians and psychologists.

The discussion nicely capped off a truly satisfying evening of a well-directed great play performed by four excellent actors.

- Alan C. Smith

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