Bryan Lopez's charm seems key to enjoying the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's production of Proof. That's not to say that he's the only reason to take in director Steve Parmley's presentation of author David Auburn's material, but I do want to acknowledge that it's his character's grace and agreeableness that draw you into the play, as he's our sympathetic and likable connection to the plot's proceedings. During Friday's performance, the eagerness with which Lopez's Hal tried to lure Stephanie Moeller's Katherine out of her house to hear his band of math geeks perform held such sincerity that I hoped she'd say yes solely for his sake.
It's doubtful anyone needs to be told that launching a new theatre company - particularly in an area already rife with theatre companies - can be a risky venture, which is likely why Quad Cities-based organizations have tended to debut with relatively low-risk offerings. In 2008, the Harrison Hilltop Theatre chose to stage, as its first production, David Auburn's intimate, four-character drama Proof; a week later, the Curtainbox Theatre Company arrived on the scene with Three Viewings, a trio of Jeffrey Hatcher monologues.
For romantic comedies that display a proudly eccentric or whimsical bent, it's a fine line between aw-w-w-w and u-u-u-ugh. And playwright John Cariani's Almost, Maine - a series of comically romantic vignettes that involves 19 Northeasterners in a frigid American province - seems almost designed to encourage irritated sighs and eye-rolling amongst its more jaded attendees. It's the sort of literal-minded fantasy in which one character carries the remnants of her broken heart in her purse, and another returns to her boyfriend's apartment with armfuls of "all the love you ever gave me," and angrily dumps them on the floor.
For its production of David Auburn's Proof, however, the theatre's playing area has been transformed into a three-quarter-thrust stage (Proof's front-porch setting designed against the Barn's fourth wall), and at the Friday-night performance I attended, the "best seats in the house," directly facing the set, were already filled by the time I arrived; instead, I took a seat on the stage-left side of the theatre. But for future Proof audiences - and I hope that includes many, many of you - who may find themselves in a similar situation, I'm here to tell you not to sweat the view in the least.
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