Claregalway/Carnmore drama group, Compántas Lir, returns to Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe next week with their latest production, Proof by David Auburn.
Directed by Dermot Hession, the group will perform in Galway for three nights before embarking on the festival circuit. The experienced cast of four; Vincent Moran, Ruth O’Driscoll, Fionnuala Glynn and Eoin Mc Carthy, and an extensive backstage crew look forward to treading the boards in An Taibhdhearc from February 11-13, with tickets available from the box office:091 563600 or at www.antaibhdhearc.com Shortly after the Galway run, Compántas Lir will take the show on the road, competing in eight festivals around the country. Their first outing will be in Roscommon on March 4 followed by Enniskillen (March 7 ), Tubbercurry (March 8 ), Mountmellick (March 10 ), Strabane (March 12 ), Doonbeg (March 13 ), Glenamaddy (March 15 ) and Claregalway (March 17 ).
Proof was originally produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club in May, 2000 and transferred to Broadway that same year. Along with winning the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award, the play also won the Lucile Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, the Drama desk award for Best Play, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play.
On the eve of her 25th birthday, a troubled young woman’s exceptionally talented but unstable father dies. Genius mathematician and University of Chicago professor, Robert, was struggling with mental illness. His fiercely brilliant yet emotionally fragile daughter, Catherine, is trying to pick up the pieces of her life.
Caught between a new-found connection with one of Robert’s former students and the reappearance of her sister, Claire, Catherine’s world becomes increasingly unstable. As she struggles to find herself amid her father’s world of hidden complexities and tantalizing secrets, she is forced to face the possibility of inheriting both her father’s creative genius and his terrifying mental illness.
Proof is about family relationships and responsibilities, about love, guilt, vulnerability, trust, death and loss. It deals with the big issues but it keeps them on a human scale and maintains a sense of humour in the process.
