Burden of ‘Proof’

Doak Bloss plays the father, Robert, who is present in act one as a ghost and in act two alive via flashbacks to four years earlier. Bloss combines a blustery, full-of-himself professional persona with moments when his character’s pomposity disappears into a confused —yet soulful — vulnerability. A monologue in which Robert spouts academic jargon peppered with observations that come with aging — and with the creeping sense that he has begun to lose his mind — is particularly poignant.

Cassandra Little plays Catherine, who, at 23, put aside her undergraduate education to attend to her once brilliant father and his deteriorating mental condition.

Little, as the doting daughter, initially submerges the deeper side of her character until confronted by one of her father’s former graduate students, Hal (portrayed by Joe Dickson), and by her obnoxious older sister Claire, played by Shannon Bowen.

Gradually, and yet powerfully, Catherine is revealed as having a brilliant mind of her own: a unique knack for abstract mathematics equal to or even greater than that of her father and a passionate love interest in Hal.

Love in the ranks of the math students might not seem all that interesting, yet Little and Dickson take a mighty whack at it and manage to thoroughly charm an audience.

Dickson’s nerdy vulnerability as Hal is balanced by Little’s pent-up hunger for sexual authenticity, and romance blossoms among the integers and postulates.

Older sister Claire arrives prepared to swoop up her sister, cash out her father’s house and manipulate Catherine into moving from Chicago to New York. Claire finds her sister, however, to be a more formidable adversary than she had bargained for.

There are elements in this script of the dysfunctional dynamics present in many families, moments that those who have cared for an aging relative can relate to. Bowen’s portrayal of Claire is at the very top of that list.

Bowen’s character feels completely real as the seemingly pragmatic, but ultimately devious and scheming, older sibling present in many dysfunctional families. (How convoluted is it that one sister who has taken care of a mentally disoriented father for five years can be seen by the other sister as the one needing to be taken care of?) There are numerous threads woven into this script that reflect what many American families are going through. Aging, intelligent adults are beginning to slip mentally and need assisted living, and their adult children are realizing that loving their parents might require more — much more — than what they ever imagined.

No one from the older generation, often called the Greatest Generation, wants to give up their hard-earned autonomy, especially to the upcoming younger generations who are often characterized as a more selfish lot.

“Proof” illuminates some of the dark sides of this generational phenomena. It rubs emotions raw and exposes family venialities, yet also demonstrates the proof of unconditional love.

“Proof”

Over the Ledge Theatre Co. 8 p.m. Thursday, July 16, Friday, July 17 and Saturday, July 18; 2 p.m. Sunday, July 19 The Ledges Playhouse 137 Fitzgerald Park Drive, Grand Ledge (517) 318-0579, overtheledge.org