Proof
Proof By David Auburn
Directed by Leesa Halstead
Starring Sarah Lockhard, Rick Sotis
G.O.A.T., Orlando FL</strong>
Teaching a paying theater audience about prime numbers and Lie Algebra skates on dangerous ice, but David Auburn only gives enough math to get the idea there are certain proofs that are harder than running a one minute mile. Once that’s nailed, we can proceed to his mediation on depression, ownership of ideas, and whether a partially trained woman can mathematically prove something that’s stumped the experts for generations.
Before math wiz Robert (Sotis) flamed out at 23, he did earth shattering work but it’s been a down hill slide ever since. Mental illness wear away at self respect but at least he’s never suffered the indignity of teaching under grads. Younger daughter Catherine (Lockhard) stands in his shadow but might just crawl upon his shoulders. Unlike her sane and successful sister Claire (Tara Corliss) she realizes math is much more than accounting and currency trading, and she has a few ideas she’s been working on quietly. In this play infused with subtle symmetries and dangerous flashbacks, we alternate between Robert and Catherine’s worlds via Hal (Ashland Thomas). Hal was one of Roberts’s doctoral candidates, and in the later world he alternates between desperately seeking success in Robert’s gibbering writing, and a half believable romance with Catherine. Ideas are good, but it takes publications to make tenure.
On a stage of carefully deployed autumn leaves and branches, the lives of Catherine and Robert reveal layers of subtle mirroring. Lochhart leaves behind any shrinking charm she may have in real life to portray the tortured Catherine. She rotates between nice, nasty, and “glad she can’t afford a broadsword.” If you have to go nuts, Sotis is a role model – he’s mostly happy, can dress himself in the morning, writes faster than Luther, and while he shouldn’t be left alone, you know he’ll never forget to turn off the stove. Supporting this insanity are two very grounded actors. Thomas’s Hal might actually love Catherine, or just the idea she’s a potential safety net under his career, while Corless’s bitchy passive-aggressive bossiness says “Wall street. Make someone from JP Morgan miserable.”
This is my third pass at Proof, and I’ll give director Halstead credit – I saw stuff in this production I’ve missed in the past. Every action has a reaction, every prop a counter prop. But I still wonder about the 4 scenes in the first act and 5 in the second, that’s the only asymmetry Auburn gave us to work with. Hmmm…Need to think about that a bit….
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