Rendering 6 (Theatre)

The article I’m going to discuss is taken from The Telegraph and is entitled “Proof, Menier ChocolateFactory, review.” It was published by Jane Shilling on March 21^st, 2013.

The article takes a critical view of the revival of Tony Award-winning play Proof at Menier Chocolate Theatre, which, according to the author, is beautifully crafted but lacks emotional significance. It’s reported here that the play premiered off-Broadway in 2000 at a period when higher maths became an unexpectedly voguish source of inspiration. Speaking of the plot itself, it’s necessary to note that Auburn’s protagonist is Catherine (Mariah Gale), a young woman who has abandoned her degree in mathematics and takes care of her father, Robert, a Professor at the University of Chicago who had a mental breakdown; however, it soon becomes clear that Robert is only a ghostly summoning of her imagination, for he had just died. In this connection it’s also worth mentioning that Robert’s former student Hal (Jamie Parker), from Catherine’s permission, looks through Robert’s papers to see if he was engaged on any work of value and finds a notebook containing the mathematical proof of the play’s title — a work of (allegedly) astonishing originality. But who is its author? That’s what, Jane Shilling says, the spectator is expected to reflect on.

In resolute terms the author of the article praises Auborn’s play for being beautifully crafted and constructed with all the self-conscious urbanity of a Terence Rattigan drawing-room drama. Nevertheless, from Jane Shilling’s point of view, Proof lacks the depth of feeling. It’s made clear that while the play flirts with big themes (especially the blurred boundary between madness and genius, that is love), Auburn’s play seems too conscious of its own sophistication to achieve the intellectual and emotional significance for which it palpably strains – and this is the author’s final verdict.

Actually, though I haven’t seen this play for sure, I cannot but agree with the author that modern plays tend to be lacking simplicity, sometimes producing more favourable audience reaction than all that performances overflowing with some philosophical ideas, unintelligible for an average viewer.