REVIEWS: RAPTURE

© MARK FISHER published in Hi-Arts Journal

PROOF

Seen at the Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh; on tour.

THE TITLE is a bit of a pun. A proof is what a mathematician devises to explain how X equals Y. And proof is what we demand of each other when we make claims for our achievements. So when Catherine, the semi-schooled daughter of a mathematical genius, says she's responsible for a breakthrough proof in one of her father's notebooks, her sister and would-be boyfriend won't accept it without proof that she did it and not him.

Rather than a question of clear-headed numerical reasoning, it becomes an emotive matter of trust. They can subject the equation to a logical process of calculation, seeking out flaws in the most rational of ways. However complex the logic, it is either right or wrong and provably so. Her claim, on the other hand, rests on her honesty and the faith other's have in her, matters that can't be decided in the margins of a maths book. When they are sceptical, therefore, she takes it as a personal insult.

If this is the core of David Auburn's play, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow in its London production in 2002 and is now being given its Scottish premiere by Rapture Theatre, he takes a long time to get round to engaging with it. The first half is taken up with establishing the scenario: the death of the mentally unstable father (Michael Mackenzie), the insecurity of the similarly troubled Catherine (Lorna McDevitt), the blossoming of the nerdish student-cum-lover Hal (Andrew Clark) and the insensitivity of the high-flying big sister Claire (Lyn McAndrew). We're well past the interval before the idea of Catherine's latent genius even crops up.

The greater impression of Proof is one of talking heads, an untheatrical succession of conversations that don't even let us into the secrets of the maths that are supposedly at the play's heart. Sadly, Michael Emans's production only exacerbates matters, leaving the actors to sit round and plough through the dialogue in a manner that is functional at best. A play written in such a dull naturalistic fashion should at least be leavened by some subtextual detail, but this is an altogether one-dimensional reading.

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