Catherine (Teal Sherer) and Hal (Ryan Douglas) in NoHo Arts Center's production of David Auburn's Proof.
Do the math
By Ed Rampell
During math class my fellow daydream believer and creative cohort, Danny Stone and I used to while away the boring hours drawing what our teacher denounced to our parents as cartoons of “flying men.” In junior high Danny went on to fail a statewide Regents math exam by a single point (and to become an actor) and when I was a high school senior, I literally received a “0” in my final math Regents (to this day I still don’t even know if it was in geometry or trigonometry or whut). So it was with some trepidation that I saw David Auburn’s 2001 drama about mathematicians (is this an oxymoron?), but lured by its Pulitzer Prize and Tony for Best Play (what can I say? I’m an awards whore) I attended the premiere of Proof. (Although I had pen and paper at hand to sketch some flying men doodles, just in case the theorems flew too fast and furious for this right hemisphere reviewer.)
And holy Pythagoras, am I ever glad I did go see this production of Proof, which doesn’t have a dull second in it! As Catherine, Teal Sherer arguably gives the single best performance this veteran theater critic has ever seen on the L.A. stage. She is luminous as the daughter of Robert, a mathematical genius who broke new ground in two fields by the time he was 22, then burned out and cracked up. (Having also played L.A. scribe Charles Bukowski in the musical, Bukowsical, at New York’s Fringe Festival, Brad Blaisdell knows a thing or two about playing troubled talents.)
Forget about those angry young men in plays like John Osborne’s landmark play, Look Back in Anger, Sherer’s Catherine is a furious young woman who looks back in angst. She has remained behind at their dilapidated Chicago (where Auburn hails from) home to care for her manic mathematical father while older sister. Claire (deftly depicted by Colleen Foy with just the right combo of snideness and bitchiness squared), has parlayed whatever modicum of math ability she has working for a New York currency exchange firm and is engaged to marry a Manhattanite with a promising career. Claire’s smirky perpetual perkiness almost made me pop a Percodan.
Auburn’s fluid drama seamlessly goes back and forth in time and in and out of Catherine’s fervent mind. She is not only mentally troubled but is wheelchair bound, which greatly serves to enhance the overall precariousness of her character, as well as her fighting determination to live life on her own terms. Her disability also highlights Catherine’s duality –- her torso is that of a sensuous blonde beauty, while her legs are that of a woman who survived an awful car crash in Tennessee that turned Sherer into a paraplegic when she was 14 years old. But Sherer dispels stereotypical notions of the disabled as her Catherine hungrily kisses hunky Hal (Ryan Douglas, making his NoHo Arts Center debut), beds her father’s former graduate student and fights for her right to be a full, autonomous human being.
I was quite surprised when a fellow theatergoer, who’d seen Proof on the Great White Way, informed me that the character of Catherine was not played by a disabled actress and was not in a wheelchair in the Broadway production. Thus, in addition to simply doing a stellar acting job, Sherer -– who is also a disabilities activist –- strikes a blow for the other-abled, by expanding the boundaries of the type of roles they can play in a profession notorious for its typecasting.
The aforementioned Douglas strikes just the right tone as the handsome, earnest, wannabe grad student who dreams of greatness and glory, and then falters when he finds it. He is nerdy and square, which is in perfect counterpoint to Catherine’s anguish and unsuspected depths. Foy’s Claire is a “do-gooder” manipulator who tries to decide Catherine’s fate without bothering to consult her about major decisions affecting her future. Of course, these unilateral changes are in her little sister’s “best “ interests –- and coincidentally, in Claire and her fiancée’s financial interests. Claire would make a perfect politician and I wanted to smack her (which, by the way, is a testament to Foy’s talent).
Auburn’s powerful play hinges on the issues of trust and faith. As the playwright Bertolt Brecht observed, “the inflexible rule [is] that the proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Despite the fine performances of the cast -- tautly directed by Bob Morrisey on set designer Lacey Anzelc’s convincing back porch -- Sherer steals every scene.
Sherer has also appeared with Kenneth Branagh as the polio-stricken FDR in HBO’s Warm Springs back in 2004 and this freewheeling thespian is a dramatic force to be reckoned with. Her Catherine is probably the best “crippled” character since the Gershwin Brothers’ Porgy in Porgy and Bess. This production deserves a longer run in a space much larger than the NoHo Arts Center’s intimate auditorium. Hollywood and Broadway should sit up and pay attention: A star has arguably been born at the Center. Sherer trods the boards with the best of them. Who knew back in public school that one day the superhero I’d be sketching would be ensconced in a wheelchair? Just do the math.
By Ed Rampell
During math class my fellow daydream believer and creative cohort, Danny Stone and I used to while away the boring hours drawing what our teacher denounced to our parents as cartoons of “flying men.” In junior high Danny went on to fail a statewide Regents math exam by a single point (and to become an actor) and when I was a high school senior, I literally received a “0” in my final math Regents (to this day I still don’t even know if it was in geometry or trigonometry or whut). So it was with some trepidation that I saw David Auburn’s 2001 drama about mathematicians (is this an oxymoron?), but lured by its Pulitzer Prize and Tony for Best Play (what can I say? I’m an awards whore) I attended the premiere of Proof. (Although I had pen and paper at hand to sketch some flying men doodles, just in case the theorems flew too fast and furious for this right hemisphere reviewer.)
And holy Pythagoras, am I ever glad I did go see this production of Proof, which doesn’t have a dull second in it! As Catherine, Teal Sherer arguably gives the single best performance this veteran theater critic has ever seen on the L.A. stage. She is luminous as the daughter of Robert, a mathematical genius who broke new ground in two fields by the time he was 22, then burned out and cracked up. (Having also played L.A. scribe Charles Bukowski in the musical, Bukowsical, at New York’s Fringe Festival, Brad Blaisdell knows a thing or two about playing troubled talents.)
Forget about those angry young men in plays like John Osborne’s landmark play, Look Back in Anger, Sherer’s Catherine is a furious young woman who looks back in angst. She has remained behind at their dilapidated Chicago (where Auburn hails from) home to care for her manic mathematical father while older sister. Claire (deftly depicted by Colleen Foy with just the right combo of snideness and bitchiness squared), has parlayed whatever modicum of math ability she has working for a New York currency exchange firm and is engaged to marry a Manhattanite with a promising career. Claire’s smirky perpetual perkiness almost made me pop a Percodan.
Auburn’s fluid drama seamlessly goes back and forth in time and in and out of Catherine’s fervent mind. She is not only mentally troubled but is wheelchair bound, which greatly serves to enhance the overall precariousness of her character, as well as her fighting determination to live life on her own terms. Her disability also highlights Catherine’s duality –- her torso is that of a sensuous blonde beauty, while her legs are that of a woman who survived an awful car crash in Tennessee that turned Sherer into a paraplegic when she was 14 years old. But Sherer dispels stereotypical notions of the disabled as her Catherine hungrily kisses hunky Hal (Ryan Douglas, making his NoHo Arts Center debut), beds her father’s former graduate student and fights for her right to be a full, autonomous human being.
I was quite surprised when a fellow theatergoer, who’d seen Proof on the Great White Way, informed me that the character of Catherine was not played by a disabled actress and was not in a wheelchair in the Broadway production. Thus, in addition to simply doing a stellar acting job, Sherer -– who is also a disabilities activist –- strikes a blow for the other-abled, by expanding the boundaries of the type of roles they can play in a profession notorious for its typecasting.
The aforementioned Douglas strikes just the right tone as the handsome, earnest, wannabe grad student who dreams of greatness and glory, and then falters when he finds it. He is nerdy and square, which is in perfect counterpoint to Catherine’s anguish and unsuspected depths. Foy’s Claire is a “do-gooder” manipulator who tries to decide Catherine’s fate without bothering to consult her about major decisions affecting her future. Of course, these unilateral changes are in her little sister’s “best “ interests –- and coincidentally, in Claire and her fiancée’s financial interests. Claire would make a perfect politician and I wanted to smack her (which, by the way, is a testament to Foy’s talent).
Auburn’s powerful play hinges on the issues of trust and faith. As the playwright Bertolt Brecht observed, “the inflexible rule [is] that the proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Despite the fine performances of the cast -- tautly directed by Bob Morrisey on set designer Lacey Anzelc’s convincing back porch -- Sherer steals every scene.
Sherer has also appeared with Kenneth Branagh as the polio-stricken FDR in HBO’s Warm Springs back in 2004 and this freewheeling thespian is a dramatic force to be reckoned with. Her Catherine is probably the best “crippled” character since the Gershwin Brothers’ Porgy in Porgy and Bess. This production deserves a longer run in a space much larger than the NoHo Arts Center’s intimate auditorium. Hollywood and Broadway should sit up and pay attention: A star has arguably been born at the Center. Sherer trods the boards with the best of them. Who knew back in public school that one day the superhero I’d be sketching would be ensconced in a wheelchair? Just do the math.
Proof runs through Feb. 21 at the NoHo Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd., N. Hollywood, CA 91601. For more info: 818/508-7101; www.thenohoartscenter.com.
