A Number
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.
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 gave rise to controversy concerning possible human cloning.
The seven elements of the story are:
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).. Salter’s action seem unreasonable, in the dialogue they say “but another child might have been better” 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 . 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.”. 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.
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. 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.”
in London on 23 September 2002. The production was directed by Stephen Daldry
and designed by Ian MacNeil and featured the following cast:
Lighting was designed by Rick Fisher
and Ian Dickinson was the sound designer. The play won the 2002 Evening Standard Award for Best Play.
and Samuel West
.
in a production starring Sam Shepard
(later played by Arliss Howard
) and Dallas Roberts
.
and HBO Films
. Starring Rhys Ifans
and Tom Wilkinson
, it was broadcast on BBC Two
on 10 Sep 2008.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Caryl Churchill
Caryl Churchill
Caryl Churchill is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, the abuses of power, and sexual politics. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading female writer...
which addresses the subject of human cloning
Human cloning
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
and identity, especially nature versus nurture
Nature versus nurture
The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities versus personal experiences The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature," i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences...
. 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.
Contextual Information
Caryl Churchill’s A Number is an original work published in 2002 in London in association with the Royal Court Theatre.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 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.” 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 . Plays following this pattern have been referred to as "well-made" plays, attempting to show a realistic world behaving in a logical fashion.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).. Salter’s action seem unreasonable, in the dialogue they say “but another child might have been better” 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 . 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.”. 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”. 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 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.. 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.” 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.”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. 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.”
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.” 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 various Bernards usually wore jeans and a T-shirt, but sometimes a sweatshirt..Original production
The play debuted at the Royal Court TheatreRoyal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
in London on 23 September 2002. The production was directed by Stephen Daldry
Stephen Daldry
Stephen David Daldry, CBE is an English theatre and film director and producer, as well as a three-time Academy Award nominated and Tony Award winning director.-Early years:...
and designed by Ian MacNeil and featured the following cast:
- Salter – Michael GambonMichael GambonSir Michael John Gambon, CBE is an Irish actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. A highly respected theatre actor, Gambon is recognised for his roles as Philip Marlowe in the BBC television serial The Singing Detective, as Jules Maigret in the 1990s ITV serial Maigret, and as...
- Bernard 1, Bernard 2, and Michael Black – Daniel CraigDaniel CraigDaniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. His early film roles include Elizabeth, The Power of One, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and the television episodes Sharpe's Eagle, Zorro and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert...
Lighting was designed by Rick Fisher
Rick Fisher
Rick Fisher is a lighting designer, known for his work with Stephen Daldry on Billy Elliot the Musical and An Inspector Calls. He is from Philadelphia and attended Dickinson College, but has been based in the UK for the last 30 years....
and Ian Dickinson was the sound designer. The play won the 2002 Evening Standard Award for Best Play.
Revivals
The play was revived at the Sheffield Crucible studio in October 2006 starring real-life father and son Timothy WestTimothy West
Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English film, stage and television actor.-Career:West's craggy looks ensured a career as a character actor rather than a leading man. He began his career as an Assistant Stage Manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956, and followed this with several seasons of...
and Samuel West
Samuel West
Samuel Alexander Joseph West is an English actor and theatre director. He is perhaps best known for his role in Howards End and his work on stage. He also starred in the award-winning play ENRON...
.
US premiere
In 2004, the play made its American debut at the New York Theatre WorkshopNew York Theatre Workshop
__notoc__New York Theatre Workshop is an Off-Broadway theatre noted for its productions of new works. Located at 79 East 4th Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, it houses a 198-seat theatre for its mainstage productions, and a...
in a production starring Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
(later played by Arliss Howard
Arliss Howard
Arliss Howard is an American actor, writer and film director.-Life and career:Howard was born in Independence, Missouri in 1954, and graduated from Truman High School and Columbia College at Columbia, Missouri. Howard established his career with stand-out roles in Full Metal Jacket and Ruby...
) and Dallas Roberts
Dallas Roberts
Dallas Mark Roberts is an American stage and screen actor.Roberts was born in Houston, Texas. He is a graduate of Juilliard School. He is primarily based in New York City, where he regularly appears in theatrical productions...
.
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
A Number was adapted by Caryl Churchill for television, in a co-production between the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and HBO Films
HBO Films
HBO Films is a division of the cable television network HBO that produces feature films and miniseries. While much of HBO Films' output is created directly for the television market, such as the film Witness Protection and the mini-series Band of Brothers, Pacific, Generation Kill and Angels in...
. Starring Rhys Ifans
Rhys Ifans
Rhys Ifans is a Welsh actor and musician. He is known for his portrayal of characters such as Spike in Notting Hill and Jed Parry in Enduring Love and as a member of the Welsh rock groups Super Furry Animals and The Peth. Ifans also appeared as Xenophilius Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Deathly...
and Tom Wilkinson
Tom Wilkinson
Thomas Geoffrey "Tom" Wilkinson, OBE is a British actor. He has twice been nominated for an Academy Award for his roles in In the Bedroom and Michael Clayton...
, it was broadcast on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
on 10 Sep 2008.