The Stables Theatre and Arts Centre
The Bourne, Hastings
East Sussex TN34 3BD
01424 423221
The Bourne, Hastings
East Sussex TN34 3BD
01424 423221
Proof
By David Auburn
A Drama Group of Chicago Heights/Stables Theatre exchange production
Directed by JR Rose
30 September–4 October 2008
Reviewed by Ellie Spicer
By David Auburn
A Drama Group of Chicago Heights/Stables Theatre exchange production
Directed by JR Rose
30 September–4 October 2008
Reviewed by Ellie Spicer
For the fourth time since 1999, the Stables Theatre welcomed actors from the Drama Group of Chicago Heights to Hastings. Their play was the 2001 Pulitzer Prize winner, Proof by David Auburn—a wonderfully poignant, humorous and suspenseful piece about the vagaries of human relationships set against the certainties of mathematics.
The plot hinged on the discovery of a revolutionary mathematical proof amongst papers of the deceased and once brilliant mathematician Robert. Was Robert the author of the proof, or was his daughter Catherine? Staged on an atmospheric back-porch set, constructed by the Stables Theatre workshop, we were treated to consistently strong performances from all of the cast. Sarah Bright was utterly convincing as Catherine, the mathematically brilliant but too-depressed-to-work daughter, who gives up a potentially great career in maths to look after her mentally ill father and, in the process, lets herself run down, perhaps irreversibly. Tony Labriola, as Robert, movingly depicted the complex emotions of a genius, plagued by madness, who loved yet controlled his daughter.
Catherine’s love and devotion to her father, whom we see in flashback, is manifest and the key to her character. In a pivotal scene between father and daughter, we witness an unforgettable moment when Robert hands Catherine an exercise book containing his new radical theories: as Catherine reads from the pages we see that all he can write now is nonsense.
Adding humour and complexity to the play was Steven Klemp as Hal, a young maths postgraduate who revered Robert and is prepared to go through the deceased’s hundred-plus rambling notebooks looking for signs of genius. Regina A Gadotti was dynamic in her treatment of Claire, the officious, well-meaning and sometimes delightfully comic older daughter, who wants to save Catherine from what may be her embryonic madness by dragging her from Chicago to New York and supervising her life.
Melancholic cello music and night-time lighting effects contributed to the completeness of this outstanding piece of theatre. The Stables–American theatre exchange programme has brought us one of the high spots of the season. For the too many who did not see this show, they have missed an exceptional piece of playwriting and performance—and how wonderful to watch an American play in Hastings and never wince at the standard of the accents!
The plot hinged on the discovery of a revolutionary mathematical proof amongst papers of the deceased and once brilliant mathematician Robert. Was Robert the author of the proof, or was his daughter Catherine? Staged on an atmospheric back-porch set, constructed by the Stables Theatre workshop, we were treated to consistently strong performances from all of the cast. Sarah Bright was utterly convincing as Catherine, the mathematically brilliant but too-depressed-to-work daughter, who gives up a potentially great career in maths to look after her mentally ill father and, in the process, lets herself run down, perhaps irreversibly. Tony Labriola, as Robert, movingly depicted the complex emotions of a genius, plagued by madness, who loved yet controlled his daughter.
Catherine’s love and devotion to her father, whom we see in flashback, is manifest and the key to her character. In a pivotal scene between father and daughter, we witness an unforgettable moment when Robert hands Catherine an exercise book containing his new radical theories: as Catherine reads from the pages we see that all he can write now is nonsense.
Adding humour and complexity to the play was Steven Klemp as Hal, a young maths postgraduate who revered Robert and is prepared to go through the deceased’s hundred-plus rambling notebooks looking for signs of genius. Regina A Gadotti was dynamic in her treatment of Claire, the officious, well-meaning and sometimes delightfully comic older daughter, who wants to save Catherine from what may be her embryonic madness by dragging her from Chicago to New York and supervising her life.
Melancholic cello music and night-time lighting effects contributed to the completeness of this outstanding piece of theatre. The Stables–American theatre exchange programme has brought us one of the high spots of the season. For the too many who did not see this show, they have missed an exceptional piece of playwriting and performance—and how wonderful to watch an American play in Hastings and never wince at the standard of the accents!
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Photographs > www.artypharty.com
A selection of production photographs from the 1950s to the present is available at our photographer Peter Mould’s website.
A selection of production photographs from the 1950s to the present is available at our photographer Peter Mould’s website.
