Proof surprises us with its aliveness and intelligent modesty, and we have not met these characters before. OK, the story itself is not much more than a highbrow soap opera with painless references to mathematics. Yet Auburn, in his first Broadway outing, provides characters behaving credibly and natural dialogue without a single stagy phrase stumbling the flow and also ensures the tension is handsomely sustained. And perhaps most satisfying of all, it does so without a moment of meanness. Veering gracefully from past to present and from reflection to confrontation, the playwright traces the development of his characters and plot with a scientist's preciseness and a poet's lyricism.
Proof is lively indeed, the jokes about prime numbers notwithstanding.
It's also rather shallow, the jokes about prime numbers notwithstanding. Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. Despite the difficulties characters who are deranged, disturbed, or flat out insane are, like substance abusers and the terminally ill, still far too common in books and on the stage. And here they are again.