proof
Why Proof?
Proof is a play about Catherine, a woman in her twenties who has dropped out of college to care for her mentally-ill father, a famous Math professor. After her father’s death, Catherine must learn to move forward in a life of her own and to either embrace or disavow the intellectual gifts her father has given her.
The central and organizing metaphor of the play is “proof,” a word that takes on multiple meanings in the play, variously attaching itself to mathematical proofs, questions of identity, strength, and tests of strength and resilience.
Proof is pertinent to the entering student body because:
- Its central character undergoes vigorous self-examination in a period of personal turbulence and transition.
- It portrays intellectual life as central to self-knowledge and learning about ideas as central to learning about ourselves.
- It asks its readers to reconsider stereotypes (of the mentally ill, of women, of “geeks”) and to consider their own unconscious biases.
- It asks its readers to think about personal ethics in relationships, questions of “agency” (the ability to act or to do), and their own roles in families and communities.
- It’s an accessible, quick read that should engender engaged conversation and appeal to a broad population.
Proof won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 and was made into a movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Gyllenhal
Special thanks to Jen Hill, English Department, University of Nevada, Reno for book resources for Proof.