Pulizer Prize-winner is calculating drama

PLAY REVIEW /// ‘Proof’



DO THE MATH—Robert (David Newcomer) and his daughter, Catherine (Erin Hollander) talk—is it real or a flashback?—in “Proof,” running through Sunday at Conejo Players Theatre in Thousand Oaks. Courtesy of Mike McCauley

DO THE MATH—Robert (David Newcomer) and his daughter, Catherine (Erin Hollander) talk—is it real or a flashback?—in “Proof,” running through Sunday at Conejo Players Theatre in Thousand Oaks. Courtesy of Mike McCauley

The title of David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning mathematically themed drama, “Proof,” which made its debut at the Conejo Players Theatre on July 12, has a double meaning.

The most obvious involves a complex deductive argument for a mathematical statement, supposedly created by Robert, a professor and math genius at the University of Chicago who died after a five-year battle with mental illness.

The other relates to Robert’s daughter, Catherine, herself a brilliant mathematician, who claims authorship of the proof she is concealing in her father’s desk drawer but is unable to prove to her domineering older sister, Claire, and budding boyfriend, Hal, that it was her own creation.

Despite this motivating device, “Proof” has little to do with math; the mysterious axiom that Catherine is protecting serves only as a MacGuffin in the play (a term ascribed to plot elements in Alfred Hitchcock films that are important to its characters but not to the audience).

Instead, it is a character study of a disturbed young woman and disciple of her father who fears she may inherit his insanity.

“Crazy people don’t sit around wondering if they’re nuts,” her father tells her, in one of several flashbacks in the play. When Robert began deteriorating and losing contact with reality, Catherine chose to drop out of school to care for him. After his death, she became a recluse, rising late, moping about the house or reading piles of pulp magazines.

When Claire, a successful New York businesswoman, arrives in town for their father’s funeral, she attempts to wrest Catherine away from the house and have her come live with her and her fiancé in Manhattan.

In “Proof,” the twist comes in the very first scene, where we find Catherine celebrating her 25th birthday with her father. It isn’t until the end of the scene that we realize the celebration is all in Catherine’s mind as her father is already dead. Robert reoccurs in two other scenes during the play, which could be viewed as flashbacks or figments of Catherine’s imagination.

In the course of the play, we like her instantly and try to identify with her, but when her beliefs are challenged by Claire and Hal, we begin to wonder how stable she really is.

Director James Castle Stevens chose superbly in casting the talented Erin Hollander as Catherine. Hollander is terrific in the role, bringing to mind a young Helen Hunt in voice and vocal mannerisms, representing the young woman’s schizophrenic behavior in a convincing fashion.

We share not only in her desolation when she is seen alone in her father’s house but also in her exhilaration in pondering geeky math problems (such as when you take a prime number, double it, and add one, you end up with another prime number).

Heather Smith is solid as the pragmatic Claire, who is assuaging feelings of guilt over not being around to help Catherine care for their father and is now gently suggesting that she be institutionalized.

Alec Gaylord plays Hal, a former student of Robert’s, who is meticulously going through hundreds of his mentor’s notebook scribblings, most of which consist of meaningless gibberish, hoping to find something of value.

In the process, he begins a romance with Catherine, but the love story is superfluous to what the audience is really interested in: Catherine’s emotional state. We don’t really care if the two of them get together, mainly because Hal is such a well-meaning nerd, and Auburn never really fully develops their relationship.

The unsettling nature of Catherine’s fragile psyche makes “Proof” an engrossing study, which is heightened by Hollander’s masterful, disquieting performance. The effective lighting design is by Dominick Riches, while the sturdy back porch of Robert’s house serves as the play’s setting.

The two-weekend run of “Proof” concludes Sun., July 21 at the Conejo Players Theatre. For tickets, visit ConejoPlayers.org or call (805) 495-3715.