Newsday from New York, New York • 122

J- i 2 -Vl finy tt cq MRIENT Effect On A Glen Cove Family Vfc SOURS AID FURY (U) Illuminating infuriating and profoundly unsettling examination of the conflict over the cochlear Implant the device that can allow deaf people to hear Directed by Josh Aronson ISO Subtitled At Film Forum 209 Houston St Manhattan luted arguments over implants however one needs to address the convoluted structure of the Artinians themselves At the center of the story is 5-year-old Heather an intelligent precociously self-possessed little girl who announces to her parents Peter and Nita both deaf that she wants to hear Meanwhile hearing brother Chris and his hearing wife Mari (whose parents are both deaf) have twin beys one of whom also named Pater is also bom deaf Director Aronson venture into the genetic generation-hopping deafness among the various Artinians but right in the thick of their philosophical wrangling While Chris arid Mari are unflinching in their support of an implant for their son despite hysterical accusation that the implant is commensurate with maternal rejection the elder Pater balks at one for Heather never have a deaf culture he says and at the same time never really be part of the hearing world You say he have a point Or a passion irresistible But it seems dear enough that his anguish is rooted in a fear that his child will no longer be his own Photo by Jwph flinaott Heather Artinian 5 the deaf child who wants an Implant In "Sound and By John Anderson 8TAVT WHITER HE QUESTION seems simple enough: Say your child were deaf and there was a way to allow that child to hear Would you do it? Hie question sounds foolishly simple So complicate it: Say you were deaf yourself your entire identify culture and world view inalterably tied to the silent signing world of the deaf Would your removal from that world be tantamount to abandonment and betrayal? Such are the contrapuntal aspects of and Josh intimate wrenching documentary centered on the Artinian family of Glen Cove and their coming to terms or not with the controversial cochlear implant Before addressing the convo Aronson seems to be everywhere A verbal Waterloo waged at a family barbecue by Peter and his mother Marianne the ultimate voice of reason in this movie is too close for comfort That Marianne and Chris tearfully accuse Peter of child abuse shows the level of heat at which the arguments rage Perhaps the most revealing of episodes Aronson captures is own consultation on the cochlear implant for herself Once told how much lower the success rate is for adults however her attitude changes and so not mysteriously does There are no unsympathetic characters in "Sound and just ideas that both inform and inflame Ambiguity is a co-star of the movie although hard to imagine that one scene the testing of baby implant a few weeks after surgery will do anything but bring tears to your eyes Parker Provides Proof of Emotional Honesty KBROADWAYREVIEVS PROOF By David Auburn directed by Daniel Sullivan With Mary-Louise Parker Larry Bryggman Johanna Day Ben Shenk-man Set by John Lee Beatty costumes by Jess Goldstein lights by Pat Collins music by John Gromada Manhattan Theatre Club production Walter Kerr Theatre 48th Street west of Broadway Seen at Friday's preview But Parker is as good as you've probably heard as Catherine a tough and needy young woman who has given up years to nurse her genius mathematician father through cruel dementia and death The actress most recently cherished onstage in "How I Learned to has an astonishing way of seeming open and shut down at the same time With a smile that doubles as a grimace her Catherine achieves an emotional honesty with the ghost of her father a heartbreaking Larry Bryggman that transcends easy plot mechanics Ben Shenkman has just the right geek-love quality as Hal the math scholar who comes to study the notebooks and ends up learning from the daughter- Johanna Day has managed to find more sympathy for the sister only false note who comes from New York for the funeral and immediately puts the house up for sale Auburn knows the University of Chicago territory well enough to endear himself with references to prime numbers and the elegance of a solution When someone makes a knowing joke about an imaginary number however it is just that a techy joke between specialists who share an exotic vocabulary but suffer the familiar concerns of romantic serio-comedy lecture about the marginalization of women in higher mathematics has the heavy-handed stamp of a beginner but he has a lovely way with the unexpected retort and the expected changes of the heart This may indeed mean that "Proof is Broadway material but you cant prove it here By Linda Winer STAFF WRITES IS a very nice play with a lovely cast a breakaway performance by Mary-Louise Parker and an inoffensive way of making audiences feel smart Is this enough to succeed in the commercial theater where so many more ambitious plays have vanished without a Broadway blip? We may not be the best judge of that We admit we were surprised when "Proof" the first mfy'or production by a promising newcomer named David Auburn became a hot ticket at the Manhattan Theatre Club last spring We were at least as surprised to learn that this modest family play about a family was selected to attempt the leap from Off-Broadway Now opened last night at the Walter Kerr Theatre and we are no closer to understanding the faith in its broad appeal Daniel fine production has been blown up to fit the larger space without sacrificing its unpretentious sense of proportion and the bungalow set by John Lee Beatty gets the look of Chicago so right that we almost expect to feel the wind Despite comparisons with such mqjor science-driven dramas as Tom and Michael however uses high Niwdy Photo Ari Mints Mary-Louise Parker as Catherine shares a moment with the ghost of her mathematical genius father Larry Bryggman in a JX er math as merely a quirky academic background a pleasantly unfamiliar wallpaper for a lightweight example of the tragicomedy porch play that used to be a specialty of Lanford Wilson at the late-lamented Circle Repertory Theater.