COURTESY OF MANOA VALLEY THEATRE
Brent Yoshikami and Laura Bach rehearse their kissing scene.
Staged theorem
If there's one thing that John Nash of "A Beautiful Mind" reminded people of, it's the old adage that there's a fine line between madness and genius.
Adding it up
Manoa Valley Theatre presents "Proof"Where: Manoa Valley Theatre, 2833 East Manoa Road
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, until June 1
Tickets: $25
Call: 988-6131
The life of the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician has been the inspiration for a book, a well-received movie with Russell Crowe in the starring role, and an equally award-winning play, "Proof," that gets its local community theater debut at Manoa Valley Theatre this weekend.
Playwright David Auburn won both the Pulitzer and Tony awards in 2001 for his well-crafted psychological thriller about the madness and death of Robert, a famous mathematician, his ardent student Hal, and his two daughters Claire and Catherine. It's Catherine, who also plays her father's convalescent nurse, who may have inherited his genius -- or illness -- or both.
Laura Bach, who plays her in the MVT production, said: "Catherine and her father are really just so much alike. ... They communicate in one of those ways that seem like 'code' ... like they could possibly exist together without speaking. But they do -- and when they do, it's usually about Catherine needing to 'stand up to the plate' and take her swing -- to nurture what genius she has inherited, and 'get to work.'"
Craig Howes (Robert) says that while most will understand the premise behind "Proof" because of "A Beautiful Mind," "the play is not about the father, but the daughter. The questions raised are, first, is the daughter as brilliant as her father and, secondly, does she have the same potential for schizophrenia?"
Hal is played by Brent Yoshikami, a rising star on the local theater scene, thanks to his Po'okela award-winning performance in MVT's "Wit." While he finds a similarity between his previous role as scholar Jason Pozner and Hal, "Hal is not as enmeshed in his work as Jason, and he's more sensitive towards Catherine, and attracted to her. And even though, deep down, he's a math geek, he ambitiously tries not to meet the stereotype by playing the drums and being more athletic."
COURTESY OF MANOA VALLEY THEATRE
"Proof" stars, from left, Brent Yoshikami as Hal, Laura Bach as Catherine, Craig Howes as Robert and Linda Johnson as Claire.
(The cast is rounded out by guest director Linda Johnson in the role of Claire. Johnson is the executive director of the nearby Mid-Pacific School of the Arts.)
HOWES would actually run into John Nash on occasion during the 1970s when he was an English graduate student at Princeton. "I would sometime walk by him on the way to the library -- the man was sort of the academic equivalent of a homeless person. The story I had heard about him was that he had fried out later in his life.
"I was living on campus at the time and, believe me, running into others who were involved with mathematics and high-energy physics, some of them were labeled geniuses when they were 15 years old, and they couldn't socially function worth a damn," he said. "While there were also scientists on campus who could talk elegantly and poetically about their work, there were also those students who challenged each other on who could send in the shortest dissertation.
"I'm sure the playwright knew of the book 'A Beautiful Mind' during the early stages of writing 'Proof,'" Howes said, "because some of the parallels between John Nash and my character of Robert are really eerie, like hearing voices."
He assures that the play is "not a grim drag through hell," but makes for an evening of accessible drama.
Bach makes a return to local theater, after being a student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, doing local community roles (like the one she had 13 years ago in MVT's production of "Twelfth Night," directed by Terence Knapp) and then spending six years abroad in London and New York City.
One of her early roles as a UH theater student was the lead in a production of "Hedda Gabler," and Bach said that "playing Hedda was a challenge (to me) -- being onstage so much (and) being so pivotal to the story. With 'Proof,' I'm in nearly every scene," so her onstage acting has come full circle here.
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