Opening Nite Theatre’s production of Proof will be hitting the local stage beginning on April 25.
The play is set on the back porch of an academic’s house in Hyde Park, near the University of Chicago campus. Catherine, played by Krista Drury, is a young woman who has put the last four years of her life on hold to care for her brilliant and very sick father, Robert (played by Randy Holmes), who in his heyday made ground-breaking advances in the field of mathematics.
Robert’s death brings one of his ex-students, Hal to the home, to scrutinize the dozens of journals and to attempt to decipher if there is anything of value hidden among the ramblings of the mad, elegant mind.
Catherine’s older sister, Claire, come to town for the funeral and to tidy up loose ends.
Like her father, Catherine has a gift for numbers and suspects she might also have inherited his demons. Claire, unburdened by her father’s genius, has worked to carve out a career and a life for herself in New York, and has been the financial support for both Catherine and Robert in his final years. Now that their father is dead she has decided the best thing for Catherine is to return with her to New York where she can care for her, keep a close eye on her, and see that she gets the help she believes she needs.
A bond develops between Catherine and Hal, and Catherine entrusts him with the key to a locked drawer in Robert’s study — a drawer in which Hal discovers a brilliant mathematical proof. Both Hal and Claire are shocked and less than supportive when Catherine claims authorship. As events unfold, haunted by her father’s genius and demons, Catherine must summon the courage to face her own, and to tread the waters of potential madness lightly.
Proof is as a story about trust and betrayal, and of love and loyalty.
The show contains mature themes, mature play, and course language, and may not be suitable for young audiences.
Proof was written by David Auburn and directed by Mission’s Mahara Sinclaire.
The show runs from April 25 until May 11 on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Matinee performances are on Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets to the show are $15 each and available at www.brownpapertickets.com or send an e-mail to ontstickets@hotmail.com. For more information call 604-826-6687.
