English Theatre Leipzig presents David Auburn’s Proof (2000), a play about maths, mental illness, and family tensions. Catherine, the daughter of a brilliant mathematician, had to put her plans to study on hold while she cared for her father, Robert, who suffered from mental illness at the end of his life. Now, with her father deceased, Catherine is confronted with her sister Claire, who has plans of her own for Catherine, and her father’s student Hal, who is working his way through all of Robert’s notebooks to find any remnants of the genius he once was. Until a proof turns up that could revolutionise the world of mathematics – if it is indeed real.
