REVIEW – PROOF
Image: Photo: Clare Hawley
All the action in the Pulitzer prize-winning Proof takes place on a porch in Chicago.
Matilda Wridgway (Catherine) manages to combine weariness/disillusionment, feistiness, vulnerability/strength and humour in a character who has given up her own academic aspirations to care for mentally unstable father Robert (played by the always agreeable Michael Ross). Robert is a formerly brilliant mathematician. After his death, one of his students Hal (Adriano Cappelletta – who provides an energetically geeky performance) arrives to sift through Robert’s notebooks, looking for anything significant.
The eldest daughter Claire (Catherine McGraffin) flies in from New York and fears her sister may have the same instability as her father and wants her to accompany her east for therapy. Some of the funniest scenes come in the clash of the two sisters.
It seems inevitable there will be chemistry between Catherine and Hal which resolves into the play about love and trust – forget the equations. (MMu)
Until Mar 8, Ensemble Theatre, 78 McDougall St, Kirribilli, (02) 9929 0644, ensemble.com.au
BY MICHAEL MUIR
