Proof

The more I live with this play, the more I enjoy the mathematical context, the less I think this play is about maths!

At its emotional heart, this is a play about a father and daughter and Catherine’s role in helping her father cope with his mental illness, an illness she thinks she might inherit. Into the situation comes Hal, her father’s student, and the spotlight falls on their relationship. What is involved in trusting someone, what happens when that trust is broken and how hard it is for two people, who work in the same field, to deal with the fact that one of them is more talented than the other – just one of the ramifications of genius. It’s about what is expected from love and whether one’s perception of the truth is more important than the trust between two people.

This week of re-rehearsals has been a revelation. It’s wonderful to come back to a text which you have already spent so much time with and discover whole new aspects of the play you hadn’t thought about. Every day of rehearsal has revealed another surprise for us all. Even tonight, just two days before we open, having already played it so joyously for three weeks in Birmingham, I’ve had the most marvellous discovery from re-reading the scenes. It seems to me that this is the sign of a good play, one that reveals itself layer by layer as you unconsciously delve into the characters, the situation, the stresses of the relationships. What a continuous delight it has been to work on.

And we open Monday!