DAVID AUBURN'S play opens with an affectionate dialogue between Robert (NEIL GWYNNE), a brilliant mathematics professor, and his daughter Catherine (MICHELLE HEFFER'S Maskers début), in the back yard of his run down house in the North Lake area of Chicago.

Robert hopes his daughter will follow his example, passionately urging her to avoid wasting her talent and "work". So it comes as a shock when the entrance of Hal (ROB OSBOURNE) - an ambitious student of Robert's, who hopes to profit from any of his tutor's undiscovered proofs - reveals that Robert has in fact died recently, his health broken by early onset dementia.

Catherine - already suffering from grief and fear that she may have inherited her father's condition - suffers more pressure from her sister Claire's arrival from New York (CLARE GROOME, also débuting).

Intense performances, especially Heffer and Gwynne's, are well presented by HARRY TUFFILL'S direction, PETER LIDDIARD'S set and MIKE MATTHIAS' lighting design.