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A Number

Written by Caryl Churchill

Characters Salter

Bernard 1

Bernard 2

Michael Black

Date premiered 23 September 2002

Original language English

Subject Human cloning and identity

A NumberFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Number is a 2002 play by English playwright Caryl Churchill which

addresses the subject of human cloning and identity, especially nature versus

nurture. The story, set in the near future, is structured around the conflict

between a father (Salter) and his sons (Bernard 1, Bernard 2, and Michael

Black) – two of whom are clones of the first – when they are 35 and 40

years old.

Contents

1 Contextual Information

2 Plot synopsis

3 Plot Analysis

4 Character Guide

5 Character Analysis

6 Genre

7 Style

8 Language

9 Staging

10 Productions

10.1 Original production

10.2 Revivals

10.3 US premiere

10.4 LA/OC, California premiere

11 Adaptations

12 References

13 External links

Contextual Information

Caryl Churchill’s A Number is an original work published in 2002 in London in association with the Royal Court Theatre.[1] A

Number was written when cloning was often in the news. Dolly the sheep, creation of human embryos at Advanced Cell

Technology in the US, and the cloning of a kitten[2] gave rise to controversy concerning possible human cloning.

Plot synopsis

The play begins with a father and his son Bernard (B2) discussing the fact that the son has found out that he has been cloned.

The father claims not to have known this and claims that a hospital must have stolen his cells at some point and made illegal

copies of him. He talks about suing the hospital for money. The son then mentions that there were others and the father admits

that the son is a clone. He says that the original son and his mother died in a car crash and that he wanted his son back so he

had him cloned. Then the original son confronts Salter and has a discussion about the clones, Salter again denies knowledge

about the others. It turns out Salter lied about the mother dying in a car crash; she killed herself by throwing herself under a

train; and that the original son did not die, but was instead 'sent away' by Salter, unable or unwilling to care for him due to his

grief. The first clone then finds out the original is still alive. Bernard (B1) meets with Bernard (B2) and murders him, and then

proceeds to commit suicide. Salter then meets with Michael Black, another clone. Michael Black lives a very normal life, has a

wife and three children, and is happy. Salter ends up miserable and seemingly alone even though he knows that there are 19

more clones.

Plot Analysis

A Number is arranged in a linear order “to describe the events in the order that they happened.” [3] It jumps back to the past

but only in conversation, we are not taken back, just told about it. The play has linear dramatic action and follows certain steps:

(1) a state of equilibrium, (2) an inciting incident, (3) a point of attack of the major dramatic question, (4) rising action, (5)

climax, (6) resolution, and (7) a new state of equilibrium [4]. Plays following this pattern have been referred to as "well-made"

A Number - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Number

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plays, attempting to show a realistic world behaving in a logical fashion.[5] The seven elements of the story are:

State of Equilibrium: Salter lives with his son Bernard (B2) and leads a normal life

Inciting Incident: When Bernard (B2) realises that there are clones

Point of attack of the MDQ (Major Dramatic Question): Is Bernard (B2) the original son? Or is he a clone?

Rising Action: Salter meets with his original son and discusses the past

Climax: Bernard (B1) and Bernard (B2) meet each other

Resolution: Bernard (B1) kills Bernard (B2) and then kills himself

New State of Equilibrium: Salter is left with another clone, Michael Black, and it is just the two of them, but with others

out there somewhere.

Character Guide

Salter: a man in his early sixties, he was married and had one son. His wife killed herself by throwing herself under a

tube train. A few years later he had his son Bernard cloned.

Bernard (B2): His son, thirty-five, first clone of his first son, made to replace original son.

Bernard (B1): His son, forty. First son of Salter, Mother committed suicide when he was two years old.

Michael Black: His son, thirty-five. Another clone of Salter’s first son. He is married with three children, a boy, a girl,

and a small child ages twelve, eight, and eighteen months, and is a mathematics teacher.

Character Analysis

Each character has a different core emotion. Salter goes through a range of emotions from love, to anger, to despair, each as a

result of his actions and decisions. Salter is tormented by his choices and hides “behind the smoke screen of lies and cigarettes”

to try and live this new life with his new child, Bernard (B2).[6]. Salter’s action seem unreasonable, in the dialogue they say

“but another child might have been better” [7] asking the question of why did Salter not just have another child? Why did he

make a clone of his first child? Salter’s response was that he thought his first child was so perfect that he wanted another

chance, a second try. He loves this clone, but he quickly becomes angry and snarls at his original son saying he should have

been squashed as a child [8]. He then turns to despair once he finds out his original son and the clone that he loved are dead,

and then looking for answers he finds another clone. He asks this clone a series of questions and is disappointed that this clone

seems to have no unique features, nothing to keep the memory of his dead sons special. Bernard (B1) is a “bitter, angry

40-year old” who finds his father after being given up. Bernard was abused and neglected as a child by Salter and naturally is

angry, but still has a bond with Salter because he is his father. The clones are a threat to this bond; Salter showed love to this

clone, love he never showed Bernard. In bitter anger he murders the clone that lived with Salter, and then having nothing else

to live for, Salter would hate him, he kills himself. Bernard (B2) is living a life full of lies. From conception he has been told

lies, from how is mother died to being a clone. The lies are slowly uncovered one by one, each time driving him further and

further away from Salter, he is angry and confused and lost. His world has been shattered and he is scared; scared of not having

a sense of self anymore, scared of his lack of uniqueness, and scared of Bernard (B1). Michael Black is another clone of

Bernard but he is very pleasant. He is a “mild-mannered teacher, a happy family man, who takes the news of his unusual

genesis with extraordinary equilibrium, and whose quiet contentment is utterly baffling to the tormented Salter.”[9]. He seems

normal, but also seems very shallow and like everyone around him. He lacks a depth that Salter is searching for, but is content

without it.

Genre

The genre of A Number would be considered a tragedy. The overall mood of tragedies is solemn, and the mood of A Number is

certainly that. With the death of half of the characters in the play the mood is very dark. There is an assumed moral code,

which is not to tamper with the natural order of things. There is a tragic hero; a tragic hero is “the agent of action of a classic

tragedy, characterized by the following: commits an act of shame, is responsible for other people, and goes from good fortune

to bad”[10]. Salter is the tragic hero as a father he is responsible for his children and his act of shame is cloning his child, which

leads to the production of multiple people that he was not aware of. There is a nemesis, or someone who is seeking revenge.

That character is very clearly Bernard (B1) who seeks retribution for the way he was treated as a child and the destruction of

his unique identity. There is a scene of suffering; Salter breaks down multiple times throughout the play, the consequences of

his decisions coming down on him. If you combine all of these elements it is a formula for a classic tragedy.

Style

Caryl Churchill’s main concerns when writing this play was the idea of self. She takes this idea of identity and challenges it

with this story. If you were to find out that you were simply a clone then you’re not a unique person, but one of many, just a


2 di 4 17.03.2011 20:52

number. This story from a subjective position, though we are privy to most of what is going on, we are always with Salter. So

when Bernard (B1) was with Bernard (B2) we did not know what was happening. The world of the play is moderately

comprehensible, we can understand everything that happens but some things elude us. Why are the clones so drastically

different from one another? The events of the play happen in a fairly linear manner, there are some events in the past that are

brought up through conversation, but we are not taken back. The characters are “fully textured human beings, with ideas,

feelings, personalities, passions, and foibles” that are very similar to our own, making the characters very life-like.[11]. The

setting is set to imitate real life, simply two chairs and perhaps a table. The play is representational, the audience is never

interacting with the play itself, only observing.

Language

The use of language in A Number is unique and slightly confusing and hard to follow. The dialogue is “hovering between the

weirdly stylish and everyday inarticulate chat.” [12] This choice of language shows a casual conversation, but obviously in a

different time, in this case the future. The dialogue is very repetitive, many words being repeated more than once in the same

sentence, and sentences are often incomplete and thoughts never finished. One character is known as B2 to distinguish him

from the other clones, one writer labels it as “clone-speak.” The same writer describes the language as “futuristic too-

sentences incomplete, compressed, abbreviated in a kind of shortish hand.” [13] The rhythm that Churchill chose for A Number

is a normal pace. The dialogue is just normal conversation between people so it is neither fast nor slow; the sentences may be

shortened, but the rhythm is normal. Churchill uses a device known as dissonance throughout the play. Dissonance is a subtle

sense of disharmony, tension, or imbalance within the words chosen in the play.[14] The sentences do not flow smoothly from

one to the next, they are choppy and harsh. “It wasn’t perfect. It was the best I could do, I wasn’t very I was I was always and

it’s a blur to be honest but it was I promise you the best.” [15]

Staging

Churchill gives no stage directions and no indication of a setting for the play. In the 2002 production, the stage was described

by one critic as a “bare blank design” with “no relation to domestic realism.” [13] The costumes of the play were as simple as

the stage design. Salter always wore a rumpled looking suit, sometimes expensive looking, but sometimes not. The varous

Bernards usually wore jeans and a T-shirt, but sometimes a sweatshirt.[16].

Productions

Original production

The play debuted at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 23 September 2002. The production was directed by Stephen

Daldry and designed by Ian MacNeil and featured the following cast:

Salter – Michael Gambon

Bernard 1, Bernard 2, and Michael Black – Daniel Craig

Lighting was designed by Rick Fisher and Ian Dickinson was the sound designer. The play won the 2002 Evening Standard

Award for Best Play.[17]

Revivals

The play was revived at the Sheffield Crucible studio in October 2006 starring real-life father and son Timothy West and

Samuel West.

US premiere

In 2004, the play made its American debut at the New York Theatre Workshop in a production starring Sam Shepard (later

played by Arliss Howard) and Dallas Roberts.

LA/OC, California premiere

In February/March 2009, the play made its Los Angeles/Orange County debut at the Rude Guerrilla Theater Company in a

production directed by Scott Barber, starring Vince Campbell and Mark Coyan.

Adaptations


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A Number was adapted by Caryl Churchill for television, in a co-production between the BBC and HBO Films.[18] Starring

Rhys Ifans and Tom Wilkinson, it was broadcast on BBC Two on 10 Sep 2008.[19]

References

^ Churchill, Caryl. A Number. New York: Theatre

Communications Group, 2003.

1.

^ "What Is Warm and Fuzzy Forever? With Cloning, Kitty -

New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News,

World News & Multimedia. 27 Feb. 2009

<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=.

2.

^ Rush, David. Student guide to play analysis. Carbondale:

Southern Illinois UP, 2005 p.37

3.


Southern Illinois UP, 2005 p. 38-39

4.


Southern Illinois UP, 2005 p. 286

5.

^ Brown, Georgina. "A Number." Mail on Sunday [London]

29 Sept. 2002.

6.


Communications Group, 2003. p. 21

7.



8.

^ Jones, Oliver. "A Number." What's On [London] 2 Oct.

2002.

9.


Southern Illinois UP, 2005. p. 286

10.



11.

^ Myerson, Jonathan. "A Number." Independent [London] 1

Oct. 2002.

12.

^ a b De Jongh, Nicholas. "A Number." Evening Standard

[London] 27 Sept. 2002.

13.



14.



15.

^ Basset, Kate. "A Number." Independent on Sunday

[London] 29 Sept. 2002.

16.

^ Evening Standard Awards (http://www.albemarle-

london.com/awards

/AwardWinners.php?Award_Type=Evening%20Standard%20Awards&

Year=2002) Retrieved on 8 October 2009

17.

^ BBC (2008-06-19). "Uma Thurman, Rhys Ifans and Tom

Wilkinson star in two plays for BBC Two"

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories

/2008/06_june/19/stage.shtml) . Press release.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories

/2008/06_june/19/stage.shtml. Retrieved 2008-09-09.

18.

^ "A Number" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/listings

/programme.shtml?day=wednesday&service_id=4224&

filename=20080910/20080910_2100_4224_26197_70) .

BBC Two Listings. BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo

/listings/programme.shtml?day=wednesday&

service_id=4224&filename=20080910

/20080910_2100_4224_26197_70. Retrieved 2008-09-09.

19.

External links

Review of original British productions (http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/anumber-rev.htm)

New York Theater Workshop website for American production (http://www.nytw.org/a_number_info.asp)

Guardian review of Royal Court production (http://arts.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,,800089,00.html)

Reviews of the 2006 Sheffield revival (http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.view&

NewsID=256)

The New York Times (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9406E6DA153FF936A25751C0A9649C8B63&

scp=2&sq=cloned%20cat&st=cse)

A Number (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010035/) at the Internet Movie Database

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Number"

Categories: Plays by Caryl Churchill | 2002 plays | Evening Standard Award for Best Play

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