Proof Opens Barn's Season

Robert Auburn, creator of the mathematics-themed drama, Proof, was not himself a mathematician. He was an English major from the University of Chicago and a playwriting graduate from Juilliard. So what attracted him to write a play about higher math and its followers?

Director’s notes in the Ross Valley Players’ program for Proof state that Auburn had been mulling over dramatic possibilities involving two sisters fighting over something they’d inherited, found in the family home. But in an interview with the National Science Research Institute, the playwright said that he’d also studied biographies of star-level mathematicians, including John Nash of A Beautiful Mind, and had noted the incidences of mental illness. He wondered if the two could be linked, if such genius could be inherited and the madness along with it? And would the gender of the recipient make a difference?

It was a marvelous blueprint for a play and one that would become immediately successful. Proof came out in 2000; one year later, it won the Drama Desk Award, a Tony Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Ross Valley Players have wisely chosen this complex, intelligent work to lead off their 77th season.

The entire play takes place on the back porch of the family home in Chicago. At the beginning, Catherine’s dad, a brilliant math professor, is chiding her gently to “stop moping” and go celebrate her 25th birthday with friends. He’s even brought some champagne for the occasion, which the birthday girl proceeds to drink alone. She has to, it turns out. Dad’s a recent ghost.

Hal, one of his graduate students, is now upstairs, sorting through the late professor’s papers and notebooks. In a private conversation with Catherine, he chats about the private lives and worries of math students, all of whom feel the need to accomplish their best work before the age of twenty-three. Hal’s already feeling the lack of great inspiration in his own work. He’s twenty-eight, he says, “on the downward slope.”

Older sister Claire arrives for the funeral, full of nutrition and beauty tips for Catherine, but her plans go beyond just a better shampoo and sisterly bonding. Catherine discerns rightly that Claire is nudging her come to New York because there are so many “alternative” living situations for someone as “unstable” as Catherine.

And then Hal finds a notebook in a locked drawer. Is it the proof he’s been looking for? Catherine reveals a stunning answer at the close of the first act.

Proof moves in and out of time, showing the home and its occupants progressing and declining over the past four years. It raises questions and reveals struggles. It’s part family story, part love story and part mystery. Like all good mysteries, it raises questions, but keeps its solution until the very end.

The time flashbacks occur in the second act, when Robert, the father, shows himself before and after he “went bughouse.” Director Cris Cassell indicates these time changes with costuming and props, but audiences will want to familiarize themselves with the program before the show begins. Catherine (Katherine McDowell) accomplishes the same task with before-and-after voice and mannerisms. These tend to blend, however, and a little more definition here would be helpful. Michael Abts is the smitten Hal, leaving questions as to whether it’s Catherine he loves, or the chance to be famous. Jeanette Harrison portrays the resigned and non-mathematical outsider, Claire. Wood Lockhart presents a stirring portrait of Robert, seized by a new idea and imploding into mania on the back porch in winter.

Though its story revolves around mathematics, Proof is not really a play for young children. It is, however, a creation of colorful layers, and a fine way to bundle up for the beginning of Fall.

Proof can be seen at The Barn Theatre in the Marin Art & Garden Center, Thursdays through Sundays, through October 22. Special ticket prices are available to teens and seniors. For reservations or full information, see www.rossvalleyplayers.com
Or call 456-9555.