Proof
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Cast
Photo by Robert Craig
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By Ben Miles
David Auburn's acclaimed play, Proof, premiered Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theater Club in May of 2000. By October of that same year, the show had moved to Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre. In 2001, Proof won the Tony Award for Best play, as well as the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. After multiple stage productions across the nation and in London, a film was created from Auburn's script. Now Proof has arrived at the Long Beach Studio Theatre--through July 7--and this critic has yet to discover what all the hubbub has been about.
Auburn's conceit is brainy, ethereal, and rather abstract. Catherine, a disturbed but brilliant young lady, has spent many long years as caretaker to Robert, her genius but mentally unhealthy father. He was once a renowned mathematician at the University of Chicago. Subsequent to Robert's death, Catherine has difficulty adjusting to her own emotional challenges. We meet Catherine on the night prior to her 25th birthday. Claire, Catherine's estranged sibling, has arrived from New York--not so much to celebrate Catherine's quarter-century mark as to attempt to oversee the handling of their father's affairs. Meanwhile, one of Robert's former students, Hal, is lurking about hoping to recover vital mathematical information from the 103 notebooks the compulsive Robert has left behind. Although Catherine, like her father, has a gift for numbers and equations, she also may have inherited her male parent's propensity toward insanity. Indeed, she actually sees (as do we) and converses with her dead daddy.
With slow-paced direction from Luke Yankee--on a well designed set (David Calhoun) offering a realistic front-porch facade, attached to an apparently middle-class, Midwestern home--the four-actor cast gives serviceable interpretations of this complex quartet of characters.
As Catherine, Robyn Cohen has a look similar to Gwyneth Paltrow (who played the role both on the London stage and in the celluloid version), and though Cohen displays several instances of credible emotion, it would be more effective had the part been embodied by an actress not so reminiscent of Paltrow, the movie star.
Similarly, Scott Antonucci is undermined in the role of Hal. Jake Gyllenhaal portrayed Hal in the motion picture adaptation, and because of Antonucci's dark and youthful good looks, he seems to echo Gyllenhaal's interpretation of this character. We ought to see these characters as fresh faces bringing unique incarnations to the stage. Unfortunately, these performers are haunted by the star power of the players who have so successfully inhabited these characters on screen.
Melissa Baird lends an edgy tension to the proceedings as older sister Claire. Much of the dramatic conflict (and there ought to be much more in this thoughtful but somnolent production) is provided in Claire's relationship to Catherine. Baird hones into this conflict, making Claire an enlivening presence on stage.
As Robert, Richard Brestoff is an adequate but somewhat weak persona. A more facile approach to this character would enhance and energize the story.
Proof, an award-winning play, has yet to prove itself to this critic. For reservations, dial (562) 494 - 1094. For more details, visit www.lbph.com.
Presented at Long Beach Studio Theatre, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. (562-494-1014). Fri. & Sat. at 8; Sun. at 2. June 1-July 7. $12-25.
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