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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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A question of numbers
Making is all add up: Marika Farr (right) as Catherine. daughter of maths genius Robert, sharing her thoughts with her sister Claire, played by Tori Wakeman Proof The Nonentities The Rose Theatre, Kidderminster **** YOU turn up,
not knowing what the title implies, but you soon discover that what
binds the characters together is something mathematical, something
unnervingly original – and by jingo, you're glad you came. This is because the
maths – or, indeed, the math, because the setting is Chicago and
Americans are prone to tackle the subject with singular insistence – are
less important than the people. There's Robert, the genius, and there's
Catherine, his daughter, who seems pretty well as bright as he is –
well, we discover that she knew what a prime number was before she could
read. They are the shining stars of their firmament; the restless
seekers after the hidden treasures of mathematics – and there is benefit
here for the rest of Even so, David Auburn's play is not designed to
make us aware of our inadequacies. It may indeed do that, but we are
encouraged to concentrate on the characters and their response to a
dramatic new theorem. We are not far into it before we discover that one
of them is dead. The evening brims with revelation. It is a double triumph for Martin Copland-Gray,
who not only directs it but scores quite splendidly as Robert, the
kindly academic who could probably make Carol Vordemann jealous –
and who, when doubting his own mental condition, is assured that crazy
people don't sit around wondering if they're nuts.
Marika Farr is a joy as Catherine, the young
woman whose mathematical abilities are thrown into doubt because her
handwriting is remarkably like her father's and she happens to have
exposed her own brilliance in one of his 103 notebooks. Inevitably, her
authorship is challenged. We also see her beset by anxiety as she watches
her father in the grip of mental illness: is this to be her own fate?
She is a young woman with a plateful of problems, but she engenders in
her father a joyous excitement when he realises the extent of her
interest in his work. Excellent support comes from Tori Wakeman, as her
sister Claire, and Stuart Walton, as Hal, who has been one of Robert's
students. There is not a weak link in a company who at times electrify
the evening with their staccato conversations. I would cavil only at the intermittent tendency,
particularly in the first half, to have players sitting on the front
edge of the slightly-raised stage. There are two perfectly good kitchen
chairs on the set, both of which could have been pressed into service
and ensured more reliable viewing for back-row audience members. This
is, after all, a production that deserves to be watched without
unnecessary problems for the patrons. John Slim |
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