Proof

=Proof by David Auburn =



//Proof// is a play by David Auburn. It was written in 2000 and had its first performance on May 23, 2000. It was produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club and directed by Daniel Sullivan.

Characters:

 * Robert: The father of Catherine. He is in is fifties and is a mathematical genius. After years of teaching, he finally had to give it up as his mind began to slip away. In the present day of the play he has passed away, but through flashbacks we see his love of his daughters and of Hal, his bright student.


 * Catherine: The twenty-five year old daughter of Robert, she has her father’s aptitude for math. She has taken care of her father as he being increasingly unstable. Prone to depression, her family and friends try to help her get past her father’s death.


 * Hal: A twenty-eight year old mathematician. He was a student of Robert’s. Now that Robert is passed away, he goes to Catherine’s house and goes through the 103 notebooks that her father left behind, trying to see if there is anything of importance left in them. Although he is a nerd, he is not socially inept and comes off as cool. He has liked Catherine for awhile.


 * Claire: She is Catherine’s twenty-nine year old sister. She is very happy and always looks on the bright side of things. She always wants to be in control of every situation she’s in. Claire takes care of Catherine and visits the family house that Catherine is staying in until she tells Catherine that they are moving from Chicago to New York.

Plot Summary:
Catherine, depressed, must deal with the aftermath of her father Robert’s death. From her control freak sister coming to take her back to New York and to Hal, her father’s student who may just like her as more than his professor’s daughter, Catherine must deal with the consequences of revealing the most astonishing thing that math as we know it has seen yet: a mathematical proof written in one of the 103 notebooks Robert left behind. Hal and Claire think that Robert wrote it, but Catherine insists that she wrote it. Hal takes the notebook and through other people figures out that the work in the notebook is Catherine’s.

Love

 * Catherine’s love for her father and sister, and her growing love for Hal. She also has a love for math.
 * Robert’s love for his daughters
 * Hal’s growing love for Catherine and his love of math.
 * Act 2 Scene 4
 * Claire’s love for Catherine and Robert
 * She tries to help her sister throughout the play

Math

 * Hal, Catherine, and Robert are mathematical geniuses
 * Evident in Act 1 Scene 3 and Act 2 Scene 1

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Family

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Catherine does not want to move to New York with her sister, but her sister is the only one she has left. She misses her late father. She is frightened she has his mental illness.
 * Act 1 Scene 4
 * Act 2 Scene 5
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Claire only wants what’s best for her sister – which happens to be whatever she herself thinks will be the best thing to do. She is sad that their father has passed, but he only kept them from doing the things they loved.Robert loves both of his daughters, but he really counts on Catherine. She takes care of him and she is the one that got most of the math smarts in the family.
 * Claire’s wanting of Catherine to go to New York is what she thinks is best for Catherine.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Mental Illness

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Robert’s illness shows throughout the play
 * Act 2 Scene 4
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Catherine is afraid she has his illness because she starts to talk to his ghost. The audience and Catherine herself are not sure if she is in fact seeing his ghost, if it is a figment of her imagination, or if she really is going crazy.
 * Act 1 Scene 1
 * Act 2 Scene 5

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Proof has won several awards:
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(//Proof Study Guide// and “IBDB: The Official Source for Broadway Information”)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2001) (“IBDB: The Official Source for Broadway Information”)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tony Award for Best Play (2001) (“IBDB: The Official Source for Broadway Information”)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play (2000-2001) ("Past Awards.")
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Drama Desk Award for Best New Play (2001) (“IBDB: The Official Source for Broadway Information”)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play (2001) ("Lortel Archives: Proof.")

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Production history:
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(Maloney, "Proof’s Production History - Proof - Court Theatre.", "Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions Opens ‘Proof’ on March 15th by Beth Adams.")
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">First produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club and was directed by Daniel Sullivan in 2000. The original cast members were Larry Bryggman (Robert), Mary-Louise Parker (Catherine), Ben Shenkman (Hal), and Johanna Day (Claire).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In March 2002 the Broadway National Tour performed //Proof// in Chicago’s Shubert Theater.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Donmar Warehouse in London started producing it in May 2002, with Gwyneth Paltrow as Catherine.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A new Broadway cast is made in July 2002, starring Anne Heche and Neil Patrick Harris.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine put the show on from October 28 to November 23, 2003.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Goodman Theatre in Chicago produced the play with an all African-American cast in March 2004.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A woman named Katy Maloney of RedHead Productions put the play on for three weeks in November of 2010. It was location in The Lounge Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Mount Saint Mary College’s drama club Different Stages put on a production of //Proof// on April 25, 27, and 28 of 2012.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Court Theatre at the University of Chicago performed a production of //Proof// that went from about March 12 to April 7, 2013
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions put //Proof// on during March 15-30, 2013 at Theatre on the Run in Arlington, Virginia.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Film Adaptation:
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The play was turned into a movie by Miramax in 2005. It stars Anthony Hopkins as Robert, Gwyneth Paltrow as Catherine, Jake Gyllenhaal as Hal, and Hope Davis as Claire. The film was rated 63% on Rotten Tomatoes, which was the average that most raters gave it. Roger Ebert of rogerebert.com gave it four out of four stars. The IMDb rating for the movie is 6.8 out of 10 stars. Gwyneth was nominated in 2006 for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” at the Golden Globes but lost to Felicity Huffman.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">media type="youtube" key="rT0clobsIGg" width="560" height="315"

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">References:

 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Auburn, David. //Proof: A Play//. New York: Faber and Faber, 2001. Print.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">"Awards for Gwyneth Paltrow." //IMDb//. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000569/awards>.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">"IBDB: The Official Source for Broadway Information." //IBDB: The Official Source for Broadway Information//. The Broadway League, n.d. Web.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">"Lortel Archives: Proof." //Lortel Archives--The Internet Off-Broadway Database//. Lortel Archives, n.d. Web.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Maloney, Katy. "Kickstarter." //Kickstarter//. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/proof/redhead-productions-presents-proof-by-david-auburn>.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">"Past Awards." //Past Awards//. New York Drama Critics’ Circle, n.d. Web.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">"Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions Opens ‘Proof’ on March 15th by Beth Adams." //DCMTA//. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2013/02/21/peters-alley-theatre-productions-opens-proof-on-march-15th1/>.
 * 8) =====//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">ProductWiki //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/proof_movie.jpg>. =====
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Proof." //All Content//. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/proof-2005>.
 * 10) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Proof." //IMDb//. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377107/>.
 * 11) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Proof (2005)." //Proof//. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/proof/>.
 * 12) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">"Proof (2005 Film) - Trailer." //YouTube//. YouTube, 19 Mar. 2009. Web.
 * 13) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">"Proof’s Production History - Proof - Court Theatre." //Proof’s Production History - Proof - Court Theatre//. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.courttheatre.org/m/article/proofs_production_history/>.
 * 14) //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Proof Study Guide //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">. //Oregonstate.edu//. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://oregonstate.edu/dept/dpd/sites/default/files/proof_study-guide.pdf>.
 * 15) //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Tower Books //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://i43.tower.com/images/mm101174966/proof-play-david-auburn-paperback-cover-art.jpg>.