Casting has been confirmed for Proof at the Hope Mill Theatre, by the Pulitzer Drama Prize winning playwright David Auburn. Having produced ten musicals with Aria Entertainment during the venue’s opening three years, Proof will be Hope Mill Theatre’s first self-produced play.
Proof is Auburn’s passionate, intelligent story about fathers and daughters, the nature of genius, and the power of love. Starring Angela Costello, Lucy Jane Dixon (Hollyoaks, Waterloo Road), Sam Holland and David Keller, the production also mark’s the directorial debut of Hope Mill Theatre’s co-Artistic Director, Joseph Houston.
Catherine (Lucy Jane Dixon) has inherited her late father’s mathematical brilliance, but she is haunted by the fear that she might also share his debilitating mental illness. She has spent years caring for her now-deceased father and, upon his death, she feels left alone to pick up the pieces of her life without him.
Caught between a new-found connection with Hal (Samuel Holland) – one of her father’s former students – and the reappearance of her sister Claire (Angela Costello), Catherine finds both her world and her mind growing increasingly unstable. Hal then discovers a ground-breaking mathematical proof among the 103 notebooks Catherine’s father left behind, and Catherine is forced to question whether she will inherit her father’s genius or madness.
Hope Mill Theatre’s Co-Artistic Director Joseph Houston says: “I am thrilled to be making my directorial debut at Hope Mill Theatre with David Auburn’s award winning play Proof, and can’t wait to share it with our audiences. The play portrays family relationships with such a realness and authenticity but at the same time sensitively tackles issues such as mental illness, sisterhood and the nature of genius. During its first three years, Hope Mill Theatre has established itself as an in-house producing venue for musicals, and we now realise the need to grow and develop new audiences with a variety of work. This is Hope Mill Theatre’s first in house produced play and hopefully the first of many to come.”
Proof is at the Hope Mill Theatre 27th November to 2nd December 2018.
