A Number

Synopsis

A father is confronted by his adult son. And then by another, identical to the first. But are the pair twins, or the outcome of an extraordinary scientific experiment? Which is the real child, and which is merely one of 'a number', cloned from the original? And how many more might be out there? This play contains strong language.

Our Review:

26 September 2002

Caryl Churchill's plays are often a mystery, sooner to be puzzled over than necessarily solved. The most formally adventurous of our playwrights, she stands next to Harold Pinter in the meticulous sense of otherness she creates around her characters, where what they say is not necessarily what you get, or means what they say. And as often in Pinter, there are tense, terse family relationships at play.

In her latest piece, A Number, comprising five short scenes in less than an hour's running time, we observe the encounters between two men: an older man in a crumpled suit, a younger man in white t-shirt and jeans. The younger man is his son. Or rather, sons.

But Daniel Craig, playing them, doesn't differentiate in dress and only in accent for the third of them; meanwhile, you have to figure this out for yourself (on press night, they weren't selling copies of the programme script until after the show, so you would have had to grasp this entirely for you...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 4 November 2002:

I wouldn't agree that this play was difficult to follow, even without a programme. There are two superb performances, due credit to Daniel Craig for his three turns, while Gambon is mesmerising. A very interesting, gripping piece of work. Recommended....

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