Elegant “Proof” at Valley Repertory Company

ENFIELD — A family mystery with unexpected twists and turns are in store for you at the Valley Repertory Company’s thoughtful production of the award-winning “Proof,” playing through May 22.
The story jumps around through time, but follows the life of a brilliant but depressed young woman, Catherine, played by Becky Rodia Shoenfeld, whose mathematically gifted and recently deceased father, Robert, (Bruce Showalter) suffers from what is presumably schizophrenia, an illness she lives in terror of having inherited.
Catherine’s financially successful sister, Claire, played by the cool Monica Ceresa, comes to the house looking to cart her sister from Chicago back to New York City where she can look after her.
Hal is a math graduate student played by Logan Lopez, who comes to the rather dilapidated house, well designed and built by Ken Estvanik and Jason Fregeau and crew.
Hal is going through the notebooks of Robert, hoping to glean some important mathematical tidbits that he hopes the former genius left behind, but his motivations are suspect.
Is he doing the research altruistically, or is he hoping to make his own name in the competitive mathematics circles.
Written by David Auburn, the play was showered with awards including a well-deserved Tony Award for best play and also the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2001, and was later made into a movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow.
The story unwinds like a mystery novel, with surprises and twists from the start, which open like a flower, or perhaps an elegant math problem, to reveal deeper truths. It is also reminiscent of the film “A Beautiful Mind,” which also explores mental illness — here with Robert suspecting that there is a secret code locked in the library’s Dewey Decimal System.
Shoenfeld perfectly captures the brooding sarcasm and rapier sardonic wit of the edgy, defensive Catherine, but at times she doesn’t appear unsure enough of her own mental stability. There has to be some evident, gnawing doubt in herself about whether she is able to function in the world, and she seems too normal and not frustrated and furious enough to validate her sister’s concern that she be placed in a mental ward.
Lopez’s Hal has just the right combo of geeky nerdiness and intellectual egotism and superiority, with a twitchy hyperness that works exceedingly well.
He is deeply concerned that at 28 years old he is past his mathematical prime and is destined to a life of lowered expectations, teaching at the high school level.
Or as Robert amusingly expounds to him, Hal will be relegated to teaching younger, more annoying versions of himself.
Showalter has a mellifluous voice that is almost too melodic for a crazy mathematician, but he steps it up nicely when he unravels.
As the elegant play evolves there are revelations and discoveries that gave me visceral chills of understanding more than once.
“Proof” is a super play, well-acted and very smart.

PROOF

3½ Stars
Theater: Valley Repertory Company
Location: 100 High Street, Enfield
Production: Written by David Auburn. Directed by Janine Flood. Produced by Celeste Estvanik. Stage manager Jason Fregeau. Dresser Aleeza Hagerty. Set construction foremen Ken Estvanik and Jason Fregeau. Sound by Boyd Wood. Lighting and sound technician Ken Estvanik.
Running time: 2 hours, plus one 15-minute intermission
Show Times: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. through May 22.
Tickets: $12 — $10 for seniors 60 and older and students 18 and younger. For more information call 860-749-4665 or visit their website at www.valleyrep.com
ACTOR…CHARACTER
Bruce Showalter … Robert
Becky Rodia Schoenfeld … Catherine
Logan Lopez … Hal
Monica Ceresa … Claire