About the work
A Number is a play by Caryl Churchill, premiered in 2002 at the Royal Court Theatre in London. The short, intense chamber piece addresses the ethical and emotional abysses of human cloning and is regarded as one of the most important dramas about identity of the twenty-first century.
Plot
The ageing Salter is confronted with a shattering truth: his son Bernard is not the only one of his kind—numerous clones of him exist. In a series of terse, charged dialogues, Salter meets several "sons" in turn: the disturbed original, an enraged clone, and an unknown third. Piece by piece Salter's guilt is revealed—a neglected first child whom he gave away and tried to replace with a copy. The question of what makes a person unique, and how much the father bears responsibility for, remains agonisingly open.
Cultural significance
A Number is a masterpiece of compression: in barely an hour and with only two actors (one plays all the sons), Churchill addresses questions of identity, nature and nurture, guilt and responsibility. The play anticipates the bioethical debates of the cloning age and is striking for its fragmented language, marked by omissions and ruptures. It is regarded as a key work of contemporary drama and is widely performed internationally.