Proof

David Auburn’s Pulitzer-Prize winning play Proof has been brought to the OFS stage by Oxford-based Maple Giant Theatre.

Proof tells the story of Catharine, a woman in her mid-twenties dealing with her father’s recent death, after a long mental illness. Catherine’s father was a mathematical genius, though produced little work of substance after his groundbreaking work in his 20’s. Despite this, one of his former grad students is keen to go through her father’s notebooks to see if there is anything worthwhile in them. Catherine leads him to a notebook which contains a groundbreaking proof – only to claim that she has written it, rather than her father.

The grad student Hal and Catherine's sister Claire seek ‘proof’ as to whether it was Catherine that wrote it – is the handwriting Catherine’s? Could she have written it without proper education? Catherine is on the edge of instability and this puts her over the edge. With her father’s brilliance, she fears, has come his mental illness.

This is an intense production, and the cast rises to the challenge. Amy Cooke-Hodgson is excellent as Catherine, projecting dejection and hopelessness with real conviction. Amy Enticknap as her sister Claire oozes neuroses, while Tom Wilkinson as Hal is every bit the enthusiastic, geeky grad student. Robert (the father), played by David Thurston, is tragically crazy and decrepit, not to mention suitably dishevelled.

As it was set in Chicago, it was American accents all round - and while some of the pronunciations were quite odd, like ‘Chicargo’ and ‘Farther’, on the whole it was fairly convincing. While the delivery started out a bit stiff (some more than others), all relaxed into their characters by the intermission, and overall it was a solid and professional production.

Some may be familiar with Proof, having seen it as a feature-length film starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Kate Bottriell (Unverified), 22/10/08

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