PROOF. To 12 June.

Tour

PROOF
by David Auburn

Rapture Theatre Tour to 12 June 2004
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 3 June at North Edinburgh Arts Centre

Clear production of a play that interestingly lines-up academic discovery and how we know other people.
Maths nudges, or leaps, ahead through theory, and theories require proof. Lives have to factor in human relationships too. Proof often demands trust. Which is the territory David Auburn's play skilfully investigates.

In doing so it plays a trick of two on us. All's not as it first seems in the opening scene, and there are times shifts later, which need a lively awareness of who, on stage, knows what at each stage of the action.

The quartet of characters include a Maths academic whose mind went astray, his daughter - who's had a period of mental instability herself - plus a young ex-student of the older man, and a non-Mathematical sister whose uncertainty about the origins of an astoundingly original mathematical proof sows seeds of doubt in the mind of the young male academic.

Rapture's production isn't perfect. Lorna McDevitt carries the emotional core as Catherine, and does so with understanding, if a slight sense of effort in the performance. She gives a strong, and moving, sense of someone who has undergone a long period of strain and now has to deal with yet more emotional demands.

Catherine's scenes with her father (Michael Mackenzie, excellent) are powerfully portrayed. There's a fine tension as they battle over his writing, her desire he come out of the cold matching his determination to work on. It makes the scene's final revelation of what's being written a strongly-marked moment.

Andrew Clark is an efficient Hal, both as happily ambitious student, and more self-aware academic. What's missing is an extra dimension corresponding to Catherine's occasional suspicions over his motive - does he love her of her proof?

Lyn McAndrew's Claire clearly contrast, in her bright certainty. She seems the character in whom Auburn has least interest, more there to flesh out Catherine. McAndrew's consistently abrasive manner does nothing to elicit any sympathy or understanding of her viewpoint.

At North Edinburgh Arts Centre the set was placed several feet from the audience. The design forms a kind of stockade - suitably suggesting privacy and a closed-in quality. But, at a distance, it didn't help any sense of contact between characters and audience.

There's a welcome clarity to Michael Emans' production, though there's room to up the pace at moments, and for more character detail in some performances. Still, Rapture has brought another modern play of interest to Scottish audiences. Several more are lined up. For that audiences (though not, it seems, the Scottish Arts Council) appear responsively grateful.

Catherine: Lorna McDevitt
Robert: Michael Mackenzie
Hal: Andrew Clark
Claire: Lyn McAndrew

Director: Michael Emans
Designer: Lyn McAndrew
Lighting: Grahame Coyle

2004-06-06 19:32:26