Accent
Baker dazzles in haunting story about mental illness
By M. Scot Skinner
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 04.17.2009
"Proof," the dazzling and heartwrenching drama now onstage at Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, is about the cruel effects of mental illness on an American family.
The David Auburn play is about other things, too: facing your fears, making sacrifices for your family and navigating sibling terrain. It's also about the perils of late-night partying with mathematicians. Those guys are insane.
Directed with a sure hand by Sheldon Metz, "Proof" is brought to crackling life by a cast of four. Together, they achieve a rare alchemy that conveys the script's every ounce of truth, emotion and mystery.
In her debut with the Downtown theater troupe, Jill Baker comes through with a fully nuanced portrait of Catherine, the haunted young woman at the center of the storm. Although this is my first experience with the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play (I managed to miss the 2005 movie version, too), it's hard to imagine a performance greater than or equal to hers.
Jill Baker's Catherine wonders if the same fate as her mentally ill father (Roberto Guajardo) awaits her.
Creatista/Scott Griessel / Courtesy of Beowulf Alley Theatre Company
As "Proof" begins, it's Catherine's 25th birthday and her sister Claire (Chris Farishon) is flying home for the funeral of their father (Roberto Guajardo), a brilliant mathematician who published game-changing work while still in his early 20s.
Meanwhile, a former student of their dad's is upstairs going through his notebooks to see if any of the scribbling is important. Sure, the professor was sick in his final years, but maybe there's something the world needs to see, says Hal (Jonathan A.J. Northover).
Catherine is convinced that it's all gibberish, which breaks her heart. She inherited a knack for higher math, but except for a few months at Northwestern when her father's mental health appeared to be improving, she has put her studies and, well, her life on the back burner so she could take care of him.
For years, it's been just the two of them in the run-down Chicago home. Catherine was confronted daily with the ugly realities of a beautiful mind brought down by a brain disorder. She did most of her mourning long before his death.
Knowing that he started showing symptoms when he was her age, she's consumed with the key questions:
Is she destined to become a pioneering thinker? Or is she destined to suffer through years of mental illness? Or both?
She wants to be just like her father, and she's scared to death that she'll be just like her father.
The playwright cleverly picks a date in September for Catherine's birthday, a turning point for her and for the weather in Chicago. It's a time when lovely nights on the porch give way to the first shivers of what's to come.
The Beowulf company never loses sight of the chilling truths that drive the elegantly constructed story. And with Auburn's script in such capable hands, the abundant humor in "Proof" is never forced. When you find yourself laughing at the tense interaction between Catherine and her back-to-save-the-day sister, it's not because the actors are trying to be funny. It's because they've got such a firm grasp on the real stuff underneath.
Contact reporter M. Scot Skinner at 573-4119 or skinner@azstarnet.com.
REVIEW
"Proof"
• By: David Auburn.
• Presented by: Beowulf Alley Theatre Company.
• Director: Sheldon Metz.
• When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 1:30 p.m. Sundays through April 26.
• Where: 11 S. Sixth Ave.
• Tickets: $20.
• Reservations/information: 882-0555 or at www.beowulfalley.org
• Running time: About 2 hours and 20 minutes.
