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Proof
- Tour & Scottish Premiere.
This play won the Pulitzer Prize in
Playwright - David Auburn.
Director - Michael Emans.
Designer - Lyn McAndrews.
Lighting Designer - Gahame Coyle.
Company - Rapture Theatre Company Email Contact.
EdinburghGuide page about Rapture.
Cast - here.
2003 Tour Dates and Times - here .
Seen to review at Brunton Theatre Musselburgh on 11 May 2004.
Run Time - 2 hours 10mins including 15 mins interval.
Reviewer - Thelma Good.
High proof in performances and production.
Proof - Rapture Theatre Production.
Hal - Andrew Clark, Catherine - Lorna McDevitt.
© Galen Turner 2004.
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With a touring set which suggest a garden room in Chicago, Rapture Theatre's
Scottish premiere of Proof gives this play a fine setting and four strong
performances. Catherine has looked after her father, Robert, a tender
and well pitched performance by Michael Mackenzie. Robert's a mathematical
genius who made his name when he was 24 and in his prime.
It's Catherine's 25th Birthday when the play opens and her father is talking
to her, she seems withdrawn and younger than her years. Lorna McDevitt
captures the awful internal fear of Catherine, who worries she has inherited
more than she can cope with from her father.
It's the day before his funeral and he disappears as Hal, an ex-student
of her father, comes down from his ex-professor's study. He's been a geek
but now wears contacts, there are quite a few sharp jokes about mathematicians.
He tells Catherine that academic conferences are full of scientists experimenting
with drugs and sex as well as numerical theories. He was one of Robert's
postgrad students during the few months the academic was lucid four years
ago, and has come to check if her father has left anything in his notebooks
worth noting.
Catherine's currency analyst sister Claire arrives from New York, she's
been keeping Robert and Catherine going financially but now she wants
Catherine to come back with her. Lyn McAndrew skillfully portrays
the less gifted but coping with the world better sister's complex emotions
and fears .The play then goes forward to the wake and the days after and
back to that fateful time four years ago when someone wrote in a now locked
away notebook. Catherine only went to college for a few months, her sister
is harsh and critical, Andrew Clark ensures Hal seems to be supportive
but rightly keeps us wondering what is he after. The notebook may change
the way they see themselves and each other.
Ranging back and forth across the time the play could confuse. Michael
Emans' tight and clear direction makes sure we don't get lost and gets
both tension and comic moments spinning out of the palisade wooden set,
designed by Lyn McAndrew in tones of brown, blues, greens and magenta.
Full of undercurrents and shifting premises this production is designed,
directed and acted so we care very much what happens to the sisters, even
though Claire is quite vicious and Catherine so near to the edge.
Quality theatre from a theatre company which on a tight budget increasingly
delivers great theatre. The proof of Rapture Theatre's integrity and essential
role in the Scottish theatre touring scene with increasing number of venues
needing productions for their spaces is stronger than ever. It is amazing
that this company still has not received significant Scottish Arts Council
funding.
© Thelma Good 11 May 2004. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
EdinburghGuide page about Rapture
with linked reviews .
Forthcoming Scottish
Premieres from Rapture Theatre are
for Autumn 2004
Misery - Scottish
premiere of this shock horror comedy based on Stephen King's book. A successful
novelist is rescued by his self declared number one fan and finds himself
taken prisoner.
Touring From 9th Oct - 13th Nov 2004.
For 2005
Blue/Orange By Joe Penhall - A
medical thrill about a black patient and two doctors. Is the patient the
son of an exiled African Dictator and are the doctors abusing their power?
With a major Scottish actor in the lead part. This play won Best New Play
awards from London Evening Standard, Critics' Circle and Olivier.
Touring From 6th May to 11th June 2005.
Cast: Robert - Michael Mackenzie, Hal - Andrew
Clark, Catherine - Lorna McDevitt and Claire - Lyn McAndrew.
2004 Tour Details of Rapture Theatre's production
of Proof .
Tour begins
7 May at 7:30pm Paisley Arts Centre 0141 887 1010.
8 May at 7:30pm Kilmarnock Palace Theatre 01563 554900.
9 May at 7:30pm Motherwell Theatre 01698 302999.
11 May at 7:30pm Musselburgh Brunton Theatre 0131 6652240.
12 May at 7:30pm Ayr Gaiety Theatre 01292 611222.
13 - 15 May at 7:30pm Glasgow The Arches Theatre 0141 5651023.
17 May at 7:30pm Ullapool MacPhail Theatre 01854 613336.
20 May at 7:30pm Eastfield Community Centre 0141 6418319.
21 May at 7:30pm Dunfermline Carnegie Hall 01383 314000.
22 May at 7:45pm Cumbernauld Theatre 01236 732887.
24 May at 8pm Oban Corran Halls 01631 567333.
25 & 26 May at 8pm Mull Little Theatre Dervaig 01688
302828.
28 May at 7:30pm East Kilbride The Village Theatre 013552
61000 or 013552 48669.
29 May at 8pm Dunkeld Birnam Institute 01350 727674.
3 June at 7pm Edinburgh North Edinburgh Arts Centre 0131
3152151.
4 June at 7:45pm Irvine Harbour Arts Centre 01294 274059.
5 June at 7:30pm Greenock Arts Guild 01475 723038.
8 & 9 June at 8pm St.Andrews The Byre Theatre 01334
475000
10 & 12 June at 7:45pm and Sat mat at 2:30pm Dundee Rep
Theatre 01382 223530.
Tour ends.
Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is
thelma@edinburghguide.com
Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted
for any errors or omissions.
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