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Proof: A Play
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 812.6
EAN: 9780571199976
Edition: 1st
ISBN: 0571199976
Label: Faber & Faber
Manufacturer: Faber & Faber
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 96
Publication Date: March 05, 2001
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Studio: Faber & Faber
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Editorial Review:
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize One of the most acclaimed plays of the 1999-2000 season, Proof is a work that explores the unknowability of love as much as it does the mysteries of science. It focuses on Catherine, a young woman who has spent years caring for her father, Robert, a brilliant mathematician in his youth who was later unable to function without her help. His death has brought into her midst both her sister, Claire, who wants to take Catherine back to New York with her, and Hal, a former student of Catherine's father who hopes to find some hint of Robert's genius among his incoherent scribblings. The passion that Hal feels for math both moves and angers Catherine, who, in her exhaustion, is torn between missing her father and resenting the great sacrifices she made for him. For Catherine has inherited at least a part of her father's brilliance -- and perhaps some of his instability as well. As she and Hal become attracted to each other, they push at the edges of each other's knowledge, considering not only the unpredictability of genius but also the human instinct toward love and trust.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The essence of genius in combination with madness
This play captures the essence of mathematicians and some of the ways they do mathematics. Catherine is the daughter of her mathematician father Robert, who was brilliant and revolutionary in his early twenties, but has descended into madness. For the last few years Catherine has suppressed her desire to study mathematics at Northwestern University in order to care for her father. Robert has just died and Hal, one of his Ph. D. students, comes to the house to examine the notebooks Robert had filled ... Read More
Rating:  - Great play, but cliched when it comes to depicting mental illness
I really liked this play. It was a good, solid play. I especially liked how they made a play about math entertaining. It's got enought math for someone who likes math to enjoy it, but it would also be very entertaining for someone who doesn't like math, because it focuses more on the relationship of the father and the daughter.
However, I was disappointed in how cliched the play depicts mental illness. I was surprised that something with such unoriginal elements won a pulitzer.
Rating: - Had to read it for class but still....
I'm a journalism major and was required to take some form of art class, so I chose Theater 101. This isn't a bad play, in fact when I first heard the synopsis, I thought my God what a terribly boring concept for a play. The dialog and character development is what changed my attitude. I know among college students this is a requirement (pending on your professor) but for all you future playwrights out there, give it a try.
Rating: - Brilliant, and yet...
Proof, by David Auburn, is a compelling and tautly beautiful play, ringing with a quiet elegance. Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play, I was introduced to it through the 2005 movie, which now having read the play I realize was an extremely good adaptation, as well as a very good film in its own right. It's the story of Catherine, a brilliant but somewhat neurotic mathematics student who has lived all her life in the shadow of her famous father, a groundbreaking ... Read More
Rating: - Proof is in the pudding
A very well wriiten play. You will read it in one sitting, very hard to put down. For those actresses out there , this play contains two amazing female characters.
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