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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us July 23, 2005 In Review | Proof by Tidings reviewer Chris Honoré Scott Hall as Robert and Mariah Angele as Catherine , his daughter, hold a conversation in Oregon Stage Works’ production of “Proof.” Helga Motley | Courtesy of OSW “Proof,” written by David Auburn, and the winner of a 2001 Pulitzer Prize and a 2001 Tony, is playing at Oregon Stage Works. It is a powerful and captivating play, remarkably well-acted, a drama that explores the human condition in all its complexity. What makes “Proof” such a compelling work is that from the outset it makes wonderful use of the singular word, “proof,” building on its meaning, exploring its many applications, not only to mathematics but to relationships. And as the play unfolds, we realize that while numbers are the language of certainty, of ultimate answers, of proof, as it were, the language of relationships is something else entirely — far less precise, even elusive, denying resolution to those who would try to balance the equation, who search with an edge of desperation for the formula. As the play seems to affirm, ultimately there is no proof, only faith. Faith that we are loved, that we belong, that we are being heard and understood, even though we grapple with an abiding uncertainty and the nudging realization that when it comes to others, there can never be definitive proof. The drama begins with Catherine (Mariah Angele), a young woman on the cusp of her 25th birthday, and her father, Robert (Scott Hall), in conversation. We quickly learn several things: It is Catherine’s birthday that very day, she lives with Robert and has taken care of him for some years, denying herself the opportunity to go to college and study mathematics. We also learn soon thereafter that Robert has died, just days before, from an unexpected heart attack, and so the question is raised at the outset — the opening scene is not presented as back story — whether Catherine is suffering from the same mental illness that so damaged the life of her father. Proof Written by David Auburn Directed by David Eric Thompson Produced by Peter Alzado Starring Mariah Angele, Scott Hall, Shanna Hill and Dayvin Turchiano Playing at Oregon Stage Works through Aug. 15 185 A St., A Street Market Place For further ticket information call 482-2334 And so the scaffolding of the narrative is constructed, and it soon becomes clear that it will explore the emotive intersection between four people: Catherine and Robert; Catherine’s estranged sister, Claire (Shanna Hill), who returns from New York City for the funeral; and Robert’s grad student advisee, Hal (Dayvin Turchiano), who has come asking to review Robert’s many mathematical notebooks left behind in his study. Each scene allows the four characters to become clearly defined. It isn’t just the fine writing that accounts for this, but the very fine acting. The actors inhabit their roles, creating four very distinct and interesting personas. The dialogue is crisp, the interactions charged and evocative, all revolving around Catherine, played perfectly by Angele. She is both fragile and hard-shelled, conflicted about the time she has given her father, while having refused to abandon him when he fell ill. Catherine, like her father (a reference made frequently), is a mathematician, yearns to return to school, and reflexively hungers for proof. She realizes that while relief from the exigencies of life may be found in the reductive, there is only ambiguity to be gleaned from the encounters with her family or with Hal. Hill offers up a truly fine performance as Claire: detached and controlling, living in New York, the sister who has kept her family and her father’s illness at arm’s length. Through back story we meet Robert — portrayed nicely by Hall — a man of exceptional brilliance, of stunning mathematical achievement, yet broken by a mental illness that has robbed him of the lucidity needed to work. Completing this fine ensemble is Hal, played strongly by Turchiano. He is sincere, seemingly forthright, though there is an underlying question in his motives for wanting to peruse the notebooks. Hal reaches out to Catherine while finding himself snared by the need to find proof of an improbable claim pertaining to the work of Robert and Catherine. “Proof” is exceptional, an example of what drama can reveal about our abiding struggle to encounter our own humanity and that of others. As Peter Alzado, Oregon Stage Works producing artistic director, stated: “Actors want to say something about what it means to be alive together in the world. They are in service to insight, to searching for and expressing that moment when we, in a flash, sitting in a darkened room, know our humanity and the superficialities that we hold so dear and that separate us from each other, vanish. In that moment there is no rich or poor, young or old, black or white or green, or even religion. It is just us in the glory and the dreadfulness of our living community.” “Proof” is filled with such transcendent moments, and we come to understand that while life is harrowing or, as Alzado comments, even dreadful, it is also luminescent. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Online Pharmacy Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations Hammocks Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams