“Proof,” presented by the Pocket Theatre organization, made its home in Theater Three in the Staller Center the weekend of Nov. 19th.

The play opens with Robert, played by Ryan Farrell, a mathematical genius, talking to his daughter Catherine, played by Sam Raimondi.

It is Catherine’s 25th birthday, and Robert is asking her how she plans to celebrate: she doesn’t.  Toward the end of the conversation, the audience learns that Robert died recently from heart failure and the following day is his funeral.

Robert disappears, and his former student, Hal, played by Luke Fontana, enters the stage.  Since Robert’s death, he has been searching through all of Robert’s notebooks, looking at the kind of work Robert had been doing.  Most of the notebooks only have scribbles because Robert was crazy.

Hal then strikes up a conversation with Catherine and asks her to come see him play with his band, but she declines.  Catherine believes Hal took one of her father’s notebooks and searches through his backpack, but finds nothing.

As Hal is heading out the door, Catherine realizes he forgot his jacket and goes to grab it for him.  Out falls one of the notebooks, and she calls the police.  In that particular notebook, Robert was having a good day and wrote nice things about Catherine.  Hal wanted to wrap it up for her birthday and surprise her.  He leaves before the police arrive.

Catherine’s sister, Claire, played by Allison Cohen, is on her way back from New York for the funeral in Chicago.  She and Catherine are sitting down for breakfast when Claire tries to make small talk, but Catherine has no interest in talking to her sister.  Claire brings up the instance with the cops and hints that maybe Catherine made Hal up, that maybe Catherine was inhibiting her father’s disabilities.  Hal comes back to Catherine’s house to continue looking through the books.  He is a real character, not something that Catherine made up.

Following the funeral, Claire is sitting alone while a party goes on inside.  Most of the people left are mathematicians who respected Robert.  Hal comes out and starts talking to Catherine.  They discuss the party and the funeral, and Catherine apologizes for calling the police on Hal.  Hal admits that he has always liked Catherine, and they kiss.

The next day, the house is left in a bit of a mess from the party.  Catherine is awake and cleaning up.  Hal, who stayed the night, comes in and starts helping her.  Catherine gives Hal a key meant to open one of Robert’s desk drawers.  He leaves to go find what is in there.

Claire comes in, hung over from the night before.  She tells Catherine that she wants her to move to New York.  Claire has already looked at apartments.  She also thinks that Catherine is maybe too much like their father and needs to see a doctor.  This causes Catherine and Claire to argue.  Hal interrupts them, carrying the notebook he found in the drawer.  In the notebook, there is a long proof that intrigues him.  Most people thought that a proof like this one could not be done.  Hal assumes Robert wrote the proof, when in fact Catherine did.

Flashback to Catherine’s 21st birthday.  Robert is sitting at the table when Catherine comes in asking what they should have for dinner.  This is during Robert’s nine month remission.  Catherine tells her father that she is leaving soon for Northwestern, a school 30 minutes away from their home.  Robert is a little upset at this news, but Hal comes in during the middle of their conversation to deliver an envelope containing some of Hal’s work he has in progress.  Robert realizes that it is Catherine’s birthday, and the two go out to eat as Hal leaves.

At the present time, Hal and Claire have difficulty believing that Catherine wrote the proof.  Hal wants to find a way to prove that Catherine did in fact come up with it.  Catherine is upset that no one believes her, especially with Hal, and he storms out.  Catherine tries to rip up the notebook, but Claire stops her.

Hal comes by to talk to Catherine.  Claire comes out instead and tells Hal that Catherine has been sleeping since the previous day and won’t talk to her.  Hal and Claire fight over Catherine and what is best for her.  It is decided that Claire will give Hal her number in New York to talk in the future, but Hal cannot see Catherine right now.  Claire gives Hal the notebook with the proof to look into it.

There’s another flashback to Robert in his notebook when Catherine is away at college.  Catherine comes home because she had been trying to call Robert, but he wasn’t picking up.  He shows Catherine what he has been working on, but it’s all a bunch of nonsense.  Robert went back to his insane tendencies.

Flashing forward, Claire and Catherine are getting ready to leave for New York.  Claire is trying to tell Catherine that everything will be okay, but this just causes the two to fight.  Claire walks out and Hal comes in, declaring that the proof checks out, which Catherine had already known.  Hal now believes that Catherine wrote the proof, but Catherine says that Hal should have believed in her from the beginning.  Catherine starts talking about how it felt figuring out the proof, but thinks it’s not as eloquent as something her father would write.  The play ends with Hal and Catherine sitting down, looking over the proof.

Raimondi, who played Catherine, is a senior majoring in psychology and minoring in theater. She said that she  worked on this play in high school. Now, she was able to perform in front of an audience.

“It’s my first real lead part,” Raimondi said. “It’s a lot of work, but totally worth it.”

Gareth Burghes, the director of the show, is a junior double majoring in marine sciences and theater. Before “Proof,” Burghes had already directed two shows at Stony Brook.

“I really think that the play did very well,” Burghes said. “I was very pleased with the progression from not only beginning to the end show, but even just dress rehearsal to the first show.  All my actors showed a lot of effort and a lot of work ethic in how they came and presented the show.”

Burghes admits he wasn’t planning on directing again for Pocket Theater.

“It’s what I really love and really enjoy to do so I was happy to come back to direct this show for Pocket, especially because “Proof” is a show that I found in a book store and really fell in love with,” Burghes said.

“I thought that it was awesome,” said Molly Vallillo, a freshman English major. “You could tell that everyone worked really hard and everyone who was there definitely enjoyed it.”

Jeston Lewis, a junior theater arts major, said he also enjoyed the play.

“It was very well done,” said Lewis. “I’ve been a fan of Pocket Theatre since my freshman year, I’m a junior now.  I know some of the cast and it was just a really well done show. I look forward to what they do in the future.”