Proof - review

You do the math
PROOF
BY DAVID AUBURN
Ensemble Theatre
78 McDougall Street
Kirribilli Australia 2061
5 February 2014

Credit: Ensemble Theatre

DIRECTED BY:
SANDRA BATES
CAST:
ADRIANO CAPPELLETTA
CATHERINE McGRAFFIN
MATILDA RIDGWAY
MICHAEL ROSS

DESIGNER: GRAHAM MACLEAN
LIGHTING DESIGNER: TRUDY DALGLEISH
Reviewed by Benjamin Oxley

There is a marked contrast between the purity of mathematics and the awkwardness of human relations. The father's frustration of losing the "geyser" flow, the elegance, the machine - his beautiful mind.

Matilda Ridgway's towering performance is backed by her high maths background: before drama school intervened, she was following her dad into a career with a beautiful mind.

Catherine's knowing "You can feel it coming" was reminiscent of Katherine Hepburn in Adam's Rib: "All I'm trying to say is that there's lots of things that a man can do and in society's eyes it's all hunky-dory. A woman does the same thing - the same thing, mind you - and she's an outcast."

There's a pointed take on the male-dominated milieu of math, and a talented lady's recognition as their equal.

"It comes back to zero"

It received a Pulitzer Prize, Tony award for best play and NY Drama Critics Circle Award in 2001. The play was then adapted for the silver screen in 2005 in a version starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Anthony Hopkins and Gwyneth Paltrow.

What makes the play deep and urgent is that Catherine is motivated by conflicting desires. She wants to be a great mathematician, but does not want to hurt or shame her father.

At worst, she doesn't believe in her own ability. It's essentially about a woman whose destiny is in her own hands, but she can't make them close on it.