A Number
Sun, 14 Apr 2013, 12:44 pmGordon the Optom1 post in thread
A Number
Sun, 14 Apr 2013, 12:44 pm‘A Number’ is an intimate, thrilling and challenging study of identity, crafted by English playwright Caryl Churchill. This tale of pathos was written soon after the cloning of Dolly the sheep at Roslin, near Edinburgh (the same place as in the final chapter of ‘The Da Vinci Code’).
The play’s title, ‘A Number’, refers to how clones are allotted a number rather than a name. Written with the support of London’s Royal Court Theatre where it premiered in 2002. The play went on to win the Evening Standard’s Award for Best New Play.
The production of this unusual drama is being presented by the Perth Theatre Company at the Studio Underground, in the State Theatre Centre, 174 William Street, Northbridge. The riveting 65-minute performances are presented daily at 8.00 pm, and run until Saturday, 27th April.
Strangely, Churchill’s script gives no specific stage directions, so the empty, featureless stage is representational, emphasising the characters’ total lack of interpersonal relationship or feeling. This dissonance carries through to even the costumes, which are uncomplicated or ill-fitting, again to accentuate the impersonality. Even the language used is an informal dialogue, almost like the private lingo of street kids, being repetitive, clipped and a tad difficult to understand. We can gather that we are sometime in the near future.
Only the emotions of this absurd play are straightforward and easily comprehensible.
Nicole, the usherette guides the audience down a staircase and we find ourselves in a small simply furnished office (set design Bruce McKinven). There are blinds on the windows. We pass through the office and find ourselves the main stage. It is painted completely black. A large window at the rear of the stage glows with the dark blue, night sky. In the centre of the stage are a pine table and three metal-framed, pine chairs. The white fluorescent lights hanging from the auditorium ceiling, randomly flicker and go off.
From our seats, we are looking at the dimly lit office area in this government building, or could it perhaps be a hospital?
The tragic hero figure, dressed in a grey crushed suit, Salter (Kim Gyngell) enters and sits at the table. He is soon joined by a quiet, thirty-five-year old young man, Bernard – B2 (Brent Hill) attired in a T-shirt, a loosely draped shirt and jeans. He joins his father at the table and the two men start talking. This is the beginning of a disturbing family reunion and an incredible discovery. This is their first meeting in thirty years. Bernard finds that he is not unique; in fact he is one of many identical sons, clones.
Salter, the original father of this special strain, tells Bernard that he has been conned and suggests to Bernard that they sue the scientists or hospital for producing so many clones. Bernard’s emotions swing from confusion, to love to desolation – what is he to do? It soon becomes obvious that Salter not only lives a lie, but also lies practically every time he opens his mouth.
From another office at the other side of the stage, another identical man – this time wearing a sweatshirt and hoodie enters, this is Bernard 1. As a child, Bernard (B1) was considered perfect by his father, and yet he was mistreated and abandoned. Salter explains to Bernard 1 how his mother had died in a car accident and that the intense grief left him unable to care for him. Now, at 40-years old, Bernard 1 is not surprisingly bitter and determined to have revenge and retribution for his childhood mistreatment, but against whom? His brother? His father? Although he has no distinctive identity, he still feels a bond with Salter.
Next, Salter meets Michael Black, another thirty-five year-old clone of Salter’s first son. He exhibits a compassion he never showed Bernard 1 and 2. Black is a satisfied school teacher, happily married with three children, but Salter thinks this contentment is a sign that Michael is lacking in personality.
Will Salter achieve peace of mind? Will he ever see his boys again? What if the siblings met each other in the street? Salter’s reunion may have opened up more problems, rather than creating family unity.
The two actors, Brent Hill, a WA actor, trained in Perth, recently won the ‘Best Male Artist in a Leading Role’ Green Room Award and Kim Gyngell, famous for his unusual, madcap TV comedy, shows what a wonderful dramatic actor he can be. Kim has spent the past few years treading the boards and it is fantastic to see him in Perth.
This is not an easy play to comprehend, but under the skilled direction of Melissa Cantwell, the audience is soon sucked into the strange world of clones, the implications of cloning and the horrific consequences for Salter’s conscience. The general pace and speed of talking was slightly slower than usual, but in this case it allowed the fairly complex story to be grasped, along with a greater appreciation of the mental confusion of the characters.
Brent – who incidentally makes a wonderful pantomime dame – captured the three very different personalities of the clones. A slick performance. It was interesting to see how cleverly Kim modified his attitude when chatting to his ‘sons’. He showed Salter strongly justifying his actions and yet subtly hinted at the numerous cracks in his armour. There were hints of Nature versus Nurture, reminding me of Willy Russell’s ‘Blood Brothers’.
There was a screen projection for a few seconds whilst B1 moved out and B2 moved in. The video was supposedly of sperm and mitosis (?), but I think looked more like neural transmissions. Who cares? The idea worked.
The lighting (Jon Buswell) was superb, with a very good train effect (sound design Peter Dawson). The faders were used to change the lighting at an almost imperceptible rate. At times, the lights would fade leaving the central characters’ faces lit by a fine beam from a spot, and then creep back up to a fully lit room, with floods. Superb design and operation.
A very clever play, superbly written and directed. An hour long, but the performances and the implications will have you thinking for a long time afterwards. Wonderfully different.
‘A Number’ is an intimate, thrilling and challenging study of identity, crafted by English playwright Caryl Churchill. This tale of pathos was written soon after the cloning of Dolly the sheep at Roslin, near Edinburgh (the same place as in the final chapter of ‘The Da Vinci Code’).
The play’s title, ‘A Number’, refers to how clones are allotted a number rather than a name. Written with the support of London’s Royal Court Theatre where it premiered in 2002. The play went on to win the Evening Standard’s Award for Best New Play.
The production of this unusual drama is being presented by the Perth Theatre Company at the Studio Underground, in the State Theatre Centre, 174 William Street, Northbridge. The riveting 65-minute performances are presented daily at 8.00 pm, and run until Saturday, 27th April.
Strangely, Churchill’s script gives no specific stage directions, so the empty, featureless stage is representational, emphasising the characters’ total lack of interpersonal relationship or feeling. This dissonance carries through to even the costumes, which are uncomplicated or ill-fitting, again to accentuate the impersonality. Even the language used is an informal dialogue, almost like the private lingo of street kids, being repetitive, clipped and a tad difficult to understand. We can gather that we are sometime in the near future.
Only the emotions of this absurd play are straightforward and easily comprehensible.
Nicole, the usherette guides the audience down a staircase and we find ourselves in a small simply furnished office (set design Bruce McKinven). There are blinds on the windows. We pass through the office and find ourselves the main stage. It is painted completely black. A large window at the rear of the stage glows with the dark blue, night sky. In the centre of the stage are a pine table and three metal-framed, pine chairs. The white fluorescent lights hanging from the auditorium ceiling, randomly flicker and go off.
From our seats, we are looking at the dimly lit office area in this government building, or could it perhaps be a hospital?
The tragic hero figure, dressed in a grey crushed suit, Salter (Kim Gyngell) enters and sits at the table. He is soon joined by a quiet, thirty-five-year old young man, Bernard – B2 (Brent Hill) attired in a T-shirt, a loosely draped shirt and jeans. He joins his father at the table and the two men start talking. This is the beginning of a disturbing family reunion and an incredible discovery. This is their first meeting in thirty years. Bernard finds that he is not unique; in fact he is one of many identical sons, clones.
Salter, the original father of this special strain, tells Bernard that he has been conned and suggests to Bernard that they sue the scientists or hospital for producing so many clones. Bernard’s emotions swing from confusion, to love to desolation – what is he to do? It soon becomes obvious that Salter not only lives a lie, but also lies practically every time he opens his mouth.
From another office at the other side of the stage, another identical man – this time wearing a sweatshirt and hoodie enters, this is Bernard 1. As a child, Bernard (B1) was considered perfect by his father, and yet he was mistreated and abandoned. Salter explains to Bernard 1 how his mother had died in a car accident and that the intense grief left him unable to care for him. Now, at 40-years old, Bernard 1 is not surprisingly bitter and determined to have revenge and retribution for his childhood mistreatment, but against whom? His brother? His father? Although he has no distinctive identity, he still feels a bond with Salter.
Next, Salter meets Michael Black, another thirty-five year-old clone of Salter’s first son. He exhibits a compassion he never showed Bernard 1 and 2. Black is a satisfied school teacher, happily married with three children, but Salter thinks this contentment is a sign that Michael is lacking in personality.
Will Salter achieve peace of mind? Will he ever see his boys again? What if the siblings met each other in the street? Salter’s reunion may have opened up more problems, rather than creating family unity.
The two actors, Brent Hill, a WA actor, trained in Perth, recently won the ‘Best Male Artist in a Leading Role’ Green Room Award and Kim Gyngell, famous for his unusual, madcap TV comedy, shows what a wonderful dramatic actor he can be. Kim has spent the past few years treading the boards and it is fantastic to see him in Perth.
This is not an easy play to comprehend, but under the skilled direction of Melissa Cantwell, the audience is soon sucked into the strange world of clones, the implications of cloning and the horrific consequences for Salter’s conscience. The general pace and speed of talking was slightly slower than usual, but in this case it allowed the fairly complex story to be grasped, along with a greater appreciation of the mental confusion of the characters.
Brent – who incidentally makes a wonderful pantomime dame – captured the three very different personalities of the clones. A slick performance. It was interesting to see how cleverly Kim modified his attitude when chatting to his ‘sons’. He showed Salter strongly justifying his actions and yet subtly hinted at the numerous cracks in his armour. There were hints of Nature versus Nurture, reminding me of Willy Russell’s ‘Blood Brothers’.
There was a screen projection for a few seconds whilst B1 moved out and B2 moved in. The video was supposedly of sperm and mitosis (?), but I think looked more like neural transmissions. Who cares? The idea worked.
The lighting (Jon Buswell) was superb, with a very good train effect (sound design Peter Dawson). The faders were used to change the lighting at an almost imperceptible rate. At times, the lights would fade leaving the central characters’ faces lit by a fine beam from a spot, and then creep back up to a fully lit room, with floods. Superb design and operation.
A very clever play, superbly written and directed. An hour long, but the performances and the implications will have you thinking for a long time afterwards. Wonderfully different.