A Number by Caryl Churchill
“Your father’s not young when you’re small is he? He’s not any age, he’s more a power.”
A Regional Premiere directed by Katherine Owens
May 11 – June 11, 2005 at Undermain Theatre
A distant father clones his infant son. Decades later, he is confronted by the copies of the son he abandoned as they reach adulthood and become aware of their multiple selves.
In the early days of Undermain, one of the most produced playwrights was the great Caryl Churchill, with productions of Fen, Mad Forest, Vinegar Tom, and Traps all standout productions for the ascendent company. By 2005, however, she hadn’t been produced in 11 years, until a landmark production of A Number starring Sam Shepard returned Churchill to the zeitgeist. What first drew director Katherine Owens to the production was the biblical archetypes running through the production. The plot bears similarities to the biblical story of Abraham’s two sons, the cherished Isaac and the banished Ishmael. Churchill transports that drama of fathers and sons (and the fraternal rivalry) to a contemporary society where cloning makes questions of nature and genetics all the more pressing. Stylistically the play shares a kinship to Beckett’s Endgame, another drama of father and son types. Bruce DuBose played the father, Salter, and Cameron Cobb played three of the sons, the original progenitor and two clones. Notably, the play marked Cobb’s return to Dallas; after being an Undermain regular in the late 90’s, Cobb moved to New York for several years before returning for Churchill’s two-hander.
