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A NUMBER By Caryl Churchill; directed by James Macdonald
With Dallas Roberts and Sam Shepard
Sets by Eugene Lee; costumes by Gabriel Berry; lighting by Edward Pierce
Running time: 65 minutes. $20 tickets available for Sunday performances. There are
standby tickets available if the performance is sold out.
New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, East Village. Through February 13
(Sam Shepard leaves January 16)
Well you just gotta love it. The theatre. You go to a play one night and see one show, then return
to the same production a week later and see another.
I went back to see this production a second time for two reasons. One, because I got
COMPLETELY lost while trying to follow what was going on the first time, and two, because I
really didn’t like Sam Shepard. The second time I saw this piece I could follow it, and the writing
flabbergasted me. I still don’t care for Sam Shepard.
Churchill’s exploration of cloning goes beyond the idea of cloning itself to the idea of the
relationship between parent and child, or in this case, children, as well as the relationship between
siblings. But this text is so intricate that it’s like the never-ending reflection you see when you stand
between two mirrors, facing one and looking at your reflection bouncing into the other in back of
you. It goes on and on and on.
This is the story of a man whose wife and son died 30 years ago. He gave permission for a clone
to be made of his son, and as we meet them he is discovering that there are other clones as well, a
number of others. These were made without the father’s permission and he and the number one
clone are now facing this reality. Whether cloning is right or wrong, it is here, and Churchill is
laying it out on the dissecting table for us to look at. The play is dense and brief as if she were
drilling into the mashed up souls of these three sons – one real, and unbalanced, and two clones
who each have a different take on their situations.
Sam Shepard strikes me as a performer, not an actor. I didn’t feel that this character cared about
his sons, although the dialogue indicates he does. Shepard seemed to struggle more with being on
the stage than with his emotions as a character. He is relaxing, however, even in the week that
spanned my two viewings. He is opening physically to the audience stacked in the bleachers, and
this is a good thing. Shepard is at his best when he is waiting for Roberts between costume
changes. Silent. Vulnerable. Like a man alone in a hospital waiting room. No magazines. No cell
phone. No cigarettes. Just molecules of time and this one man. Haunting.
Roberts swings out like a wild pitching arm. Focusing, exploding, inquiring, examining. His three
roles spin him around like a top, yet he takes refuge in his own created center. It’s his job to make
cloning into reality. Not easy. I think he made it work.
I didn’t like Macdonald's direction, which made much of this delicate dialogue come out flat and
monotone grey. These are characters struggling to speak in completely uncharted territory. They
need to take time to let the words find their way out of them. Right now the actors are going so
fast they have shaved 10 minutes off the running time. They would do well to relax and trust that
silence onstage is only what happens when you act without words. It’s an ally and should be
honored. Especially here.
Sam Shepard is in this until January 16, and the show runs until February. I will probably go a third
time, just to see this again with a different actor. It’s worth it.
©2004 by Tulis McCall