From November 15 to November 17, WPI’s theatre club “Masque” performed “Proof”, by David Auburn. The play is about Catherine, a young woman whose father was a brilliant mathematician before he developed severe mental illness. Catherine has inherited his talent, and fears inheriting his illness.
The play opens with Catherine and her father celebrating her 25th birthday. He tries to reassure her that just because his illness began in his mid 20s and he did his best work before then, doesn’t mean either of those will happen to her. He does, however, concede that it’s not a great sign that they’re having the conversation at all. He has been dead for a week. The encounter is revealed to be a dream when she’s woken up by Hal, a formed grad student of her father’s. Hal is determined to read through the notebooks her father left behind, hoping to find some lucid work.
After the funeral, Catherine and Hal talk and eventually sleep together. Trusting Hal, Catherine shows him a notebook containing an important and novel mathematical proof. She claims that the proof is not her father’s but her own, causing Hal and her sister to dismiss her as crazy. Eventually, Hal has the proof verified and realizes it must be Catherine’s because her father was too sick to learn the newer techniques it utilized. Though angry with Hal for not believing her the first time, they make up and the play concludes with Catherine walking Hal through the proof.
The premise is particularly appropriate for WPI. With WPI’s project-based curriculum and 7-week terms, the intense focus of the mathematicians in the play is familiar to many WPI students. Although most WPI students aren’t too interested in mathematical proofs, every WPI student knows the process of working a problem and the satisfaction that comes with solving it.
As a tech school, WPI undoubtedly attracts people who can relate to the characters. Catherine is intelligent but struggling due to the circumstances of her life; her sister Claire is put-together and very focused on her career. Hal is intelligent, but awkward and nerdy. He’s part of a band that performs a number called “i” where they sit in silence for three minutes: an imaginary number.
The play is also relevant because it touches on the experience of being a women in a male-dominated field. A common theme is the idea that math is a “young man’s game”. Hal feels he’s gotten too old to start producing significant work, and it’s implied that this influences his interest in Catherine’s father’s work. Every mathematician or physicist mentioned is male, and Hal and Catherine frequently refer to Hal’s colleagues as “the guys”. When Catherine asks Hal to name a woman he works with and he can’t, she asks if he knows Sophia Germaine. He pretends to vaguely remember her before Catherine reveals Sophia Germaine was born in 1776.
Although Hal’s disbelief that Catherine could have written the proof is far more complicated than sexism, it’s hard to miss the implication that Catherine’s dismissal as “unstable” is related to her sex. Despite her father’s known madness, Hal “didn’t believe a mind like his can just shut down.” He thought it was more likely that her ill father wrote it than Catherine telling the truth.
While WPI has a much more balanced gender ratio than many other technical schools, the effects of certain fields being male dominated remain. “Proof” is not centered around these effects, but acknowledges it. One audience member, Anna Eng, says “the idea of a female in the male-dominated mathematical field resonated, especially as [the number of] females entering the engineering field is growing at WPI.” This was the first WPI theatre production she attended, and she says she plans to attend more.
With only four cast members and fewer than two months between casting and performing, it was a small production. The set was on the minimalist side, consisting of two porch swings set to a backdrop of equation-covered chalk boards.
“I also really liked the set design,” Eng says.
If you missed “Proof”, Masque will be holding another performance later in B-term, as well as more in C and D term. Students who are interested in performing in future productions should get involved with Masque. Weekly meetings are held at 5:00 pm in the Alden Hall Green Room, and they can be reached at masque@wpi.edu.
Photo Credits: WPI Masque Facebook page
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