Dramaworks concludes its most successful season ever,
artistically and as a professionally managed regional theater, with the
production of David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize and Tony winning Proof.
We attended the first preview last night which was as polished as a
regular opening night.
We've seen Proof before,
most recently at the Westport Country Playhouse. Its South Florida premiere at the Coconut
Grove Playhouse was some ten years ago. And
the play, which was later made into a movie, gets conflicted with two other
movies in my mind, Good Will Hunting,
about a young man who is a mathematical genius but instead becomes a janitor at
MIT and needs the help of a psychiatrist to straighten out his life, and A Beautiful Mind, a story based on the
life of John Nash, a real-life mathematical genius who, what else, happens to
be delusional and paranoid, although he goes on to receive a Nobel Laureate in
Economics. A leitmotif of these films
and Proof is the close association of
mathematical genius and some form of mental illness.
Proof is about such a mathematical genius who
suffers from mental illness, the recently deceased Robert, who appears in the
play in flashbacks, and in an opening scene fantasy conversation with his
daughter Catherine who cared for him during his declining years. She seems to be following in her father's
footsteps, having mathematical abilities, and suffering from depression. The play looks at that fine line between
genius and mental illness, Catherine's fear of inheriting both, while exploring
the subjects of love and trust, the latter themes being the real
"proof" of the play.
So, what does Dramaworks bring to the table that the
other well-worn productions of Proof might
have overlooked? Above all, Dramaworks
focuses on the play's deep emotional core, with the
characters interacting as finely as a string quartet, the story simply
unfolding their fears and suspicions, their hopes and their love.
In addition to Catherine and her father Robert, there is
Catherine's sister, Claire, the one person who represents the real world vs. the
exalted world of theoretical mathematics. Then there is Hal, a PhD who studied
under his mentor, Robert, who thinks he finds a mathematical breakthrough in what
he thinks is Robert's papers, but Catherine claims it's authorship. She also studied math (and perhaps inherited
genius) and the question of authorship is the fulcrum of the dramatic tension
between and Catherine and Hal, and Catherine and her sister. Hal and Catherine have also become lovers,
complicating this issue further.
Between the
four characters Director Bill Hayes wrings out every drop of meaning intended
by Auburn's play, letting the four fine actors find their unique voices in this
production. (I judge emotional depths of
a play by the number of tissues Ann needs to get through the production and I
noted several being brought to her eyes from her pocketbook.) Hayes also exacts
the comedic elements from the play and there are some very funny moments, well
pared to some of its darker facets. The
pacing of the play is lively too and I would not be surprised if the drama
unfolds more quickly in this production than some others, a factor that keeps
the audience on the edge of their seats.
Kenneth Kay's Robert is measured in his
"madness" (but not in his love for his daughters), until he
volcanically explodes not accepting, or understanding, his final decline in the
cold outside his home on the back porch of an old Chicago neighborhood where he
and Catherine live. He has been laboring over equations relating to
temperatures and seasons, all gibberish, which Catherine is shocked to discover
after his short remission during which she left home to study at Northwestern
University. She leads him back into the
house and back into her role of caretaker to his death. Kay plays his part
perfectly, and you can't help but see in him the decline we all fear or have
witnessed in our own families.
The most demanding role is Catherine's played by Katherine
Michelle Tanner. She alternates between
being strong, as in her contention that the authorship of "proof" is
her own, cynical in some aspects of her relationship to her sister, Claire, and
fragile and vulnerable as she reacts to Hal and her father. She looks disheveled in most of the play,
wearing her inner demeanor on her sleeve. Tanner's performance is compelling and
as she is almost nearly always on stage one's eyes are drawn to her and her
conflicts.
If Catherine has a demanding role, perhaps Claire's is
most difficult. Claire has flown back
from New York City to her old childhood home for her father's funeral in which
she thinks to rescue her sister and walks into a drama she never expected. ("People like me have to clear up catastrophes"
she proclaims at one point.) Hers is the voice of reason, a woman who really
loves her sister and father, trying to do "the right thing" but she always
seems to become the heavy, in spite of one comic moment joining in a late night
party after her father's funeral with geeks from the University, getting drunk
and waking with a hangover the next morning, complaining, "those fucking
physicists!" You find yourself
feeling for her, imagining if you were in a similar position, but she just
doesn't understand the weightiness of theoretical mathematics, the implications
of a "new proof" or the emotional ramifications of doubting her
sister's authorship. Ironically, Claire
is played by an actor from New York City, Sarah Grace Wilson, joining three
regional actors. But she is no stranger to Dramaworks, having appeared in last
year's production of Dinner With Friends.
Cliff Burgess is becoming a fixture at Dramaworks, this
time playing the nerdish Hal, protégé and admirer of Robert, and who becomes
the lover and ultimately the advocate of Catherine. Burgess plays this role to the tee, exacting
laughs referring to his band:
Hal: They're all
in the math department, they're really good. They have this song called 'i',
you'd like it. Like lower-cased i. They just stand there and don't play
anything for three minutes.
Catherine:
Imaginary number.
Hal: It's a math
joke... You see why they're way down on the bill.
Catherine: That's a
long way to drive to see some nerds in a band.
Hal: You know, I
hate when people say that. It's not really that long of a drive.
Catherine: So, they
are nerds.
Hal: Oh, they're
raging geeks. But they're geeks who, you know, can dress themselves and hold
down a job at a major university. Some of them have switched from glasses to
contacts. They, uh, play sports, they play in a band, they get laid surprisingly
often... So, it makes you kinda question the whole set of terms. Geek, nerd,
wonk, Dilbert, paste eater...
Catherine: You're
in this band, aren't you.
Hal: Ok, yes. I
play the drums. You wanna come? I never sing, I swear to God
Burgess is ideal for the part and in this following exchange
with Catherine, towards the end, expresses the essence of the play, Catherine's
deepest fears, and Cliff's statement of support and, finally, trust...
CATHERINE: I think
I'm like my dad.
HAL: I think you
are too.
CATHERINE: I'm . .
. afraid I'm like my dad.
HAL: You're not
him.
I can't say enough about the new home of Dramaworks, The
Don and Ann Brown Theatre on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, and the new freedom
that the design team, headed by Michael Amico now has to create scenic design
that is world class. Perhaps it was
because we were seated in the front row for this performance that made us feel
like, indeed, we were in the backyard of a Chicago home in an old neighborhood,
a home that is obviously in some state of decline as is Robert. It is Catherine
and Claire's childhood home as well. How often have we visited our own
childhood homes to be buffeted by the ensuing emotions of such a visit? That is the feeling one gets from the set
design, the lighting, even the music interludes between scenes.
And to say Dramaworks "has arrived" is an
understatement. Unlike some other regional
theaters that have gone by the wayside in this hostile economic environment for
the arts, Dramaworks has been building, step by step, never overreaching
itself, into one of the leading regional theaters in the US. We're just lucky enough to live nearby.
