Aubrey holds a Ph.D. in English and has published many articles on modern drama. In this essay, Aubrey discusses the parallels between the mathematicians Robert, Catherine, and Hal and the lives and creativity of real life mathematicians, especially John Forbes Nash Jr.

In researching Proof, Auburn consulted with a number of mathematicians and also read the biographies of prominent mathematicians, aspects of whose lives find their way into the play. When Hal tells Catherine that some of the older mathematicians he encounters at conferences are addicted to amphetamines, which they take to make their minds feel sharp, he is amplifying the well-known story of mathematician Paul Erdös who began taking amphetamines so he could keep up the fast pace of his mathematical work. When friends persuaded him to stop taking the amphetimines for a month, Erdös complained that he had not been...