theatre

The story features Catherine, a young woman who recently lost her father, Robert, a renowned mathematician at the University of Chicago who had been suffering for years with mental illness. Catherine had cared for him instead of concentrating on her own ambitions.

Now, “she’s asking the question of how much of her father has she inherited, both in terms of his genius and maybe his issues of demons,” said director Matt Foss, who joined the department as an assistant professor of theater in August. Proof is his first production at the university. “She’s kind of working out, ‘Do I get to be happy? What kind of life do I have now that I’m no longer taking care of my dad?’ because she’s put so much of her life on hold.”

Catherine’s older sister, Claire, who arrives for their father’s funeral, thinks her sister could have inherited her father’s illness as well as his intelligence and wants to make sure she has therapy. And a romance may be beginning between Catherine and Hal, a young former student of Robert’s, but can she rely on him?

When Catherine decides to share a notebook containing a mathematical proof, Claire and Hal assume it was formulated by her father, not Catherine; they don’t believe she could have written it.