2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize <BR>One of the most acclaimed plays of the 1999-2000 season, "Proof "is a work that explores the unknowability of love as much as it does the mysteries of science. <BR> It focuses on Catherine, a young woman who has spent years caring for her father, Robert, a brilliant mathematician in his youth who was later unable to function without her help. His death has brought into her midst both her sister, Claire, who wants to take Catherine back to New York with her, and Hal, a former student of Catherine's father who hopes to find some hint of Robert's genius among his incoherent scribblings. The passion that Hal feels for math both moves and angers Catherine, who, in her exhaustion, is torn between missing her father and resenting the great sacrifices she made for him. For Catherine has inherited at least a part of her father's brilliance — and perhaps some of his instability as well. As she and Hal become attracted to each other, they push at the edges of each other's knowledge, considering not only the unpredictability of genius but also the human instinct toward love and trust.<BR>

"This wonderful play has already won the Kesselring Prize for Auburn, also a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Proof's deft dialog, its careful structure, and the humanity of the central characters are themselves proof of a major new talent in the American theater." Library Journal

Following the death of her mathematician father, Catherine struggles to come to terms with his legacy. Inheriting some of his instability, she is torn between her sister, who wants to take her back to America, and Hal, a former student of her father's, who tests both her knowledge and her emotions.