PROOF
Arts Theatre, London WC2
Opened 19 February, 2007
***
On its London première in 2002, David Auburn's play was
overshadowed by its casting: for Catherine, the hermit-like 25-year-old
worried that she may have inherited her late father's schizophrenia as
well as his mathematical genius, was played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Much
was made at the time of the sudden fashionability of maths as a
dramatic topic, citing also Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and Michael Frayn's Copenhagen (in which it took the
form of quantum theory). Auburn's play, despite its Pulitzer and Tony
awards, is not in the same league. It riffs agreeably on the different
senses of that title word: the arcane mathematical proof that Catherine
claims to have formulated, the forensic proof that her disbelieving
sister and her father's former student Hal require from her of her
authorship, and the tension between the hard, fixed values in maths and
the fluidity of human relationships, of proof versus trust. (It slips
by almost unnoticed when Hal protests to Catherine, "I am trying to
correct things," as if life were a set of equations.) But really
mathematics are just the clothing draped over the all too familiar
sentimental curves of the body of the play.
It would be invidious to compare Sally Oliver's performance to
Paltrow's. What is worth noting is that she doesn't seem nearly as
disturbed as Catherine must surely be, even if that is less than she
believes: a little grouchy and agoraphobic, perhaps, but much of the
time Aislinn Sands as sister Claire seems more highly strung than
Oliver's Catherine. (Then again, Terence Booth as father Robert in
flashbacks shows few signs of being, in his own word, "bughouse",
either.) In many ways Neal Foster as Hal gets the best of the deal,
since his task is principally to field the other three rather than
establish a firm character for himself.
John Harrison's production for the Birmingham Stage Company, visiting
London from its base at that city's Old Rep Theatre, is diligent and
uncontroversial (although the use of Norman Coates' back-porch set is
confusing, as characters counter-intuitively enter from and exit
"indoors"). But, in marrying maths to matters of the heart and mind,
Auburn's play ends up telling us nothing much about any of them.
Written for the Financial Times.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights
reserved.
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