A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE

A Number

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  2m

Caryl Churchill

A Number
by Caryl Churchill

Winner! Evening Standard Award for Best Play

"Rarely in my theatre going experience has a new play conveyed such a disturbing or enthralling impression of domestic weirdness.... An astonishing event.'' - Evening Standard

A Number

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2m
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Senior, Teen (Age 14-18)
Accolades
Accolades

  • Winner! 2002 Evening Standard Award for Best Play
    Nominee: 2022 Olivier Awards for Best Revival

Details

Summary
Human cloning is the subject of this beguiling hour-long psychological thriller that blends topical scientific speculation with a stunning portrait of the relationship between fathers and their sons. The Off-Broadway production starred Dallas Roberts.
Keywords
M2 (35, early 60s).
  • Time Period Contemporary
  • Setting Simple setting
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

"A masterpiece... devastating" - Time Out

"A wonderfully unsettling triumph" - Independent

"A bleak and beautiful play... one emerges as ever stunned by the sheer breadth of Churchill's imagination" - The Arts Desk

"A Number confirms Churchill's status as the first dramatist of the 21st century... The questions this brilliant, harrowing play asks are almost unanswerable, which is why they must be asked" - Sunday Times

"Caryl Churchill's magnificent new play only lasts an hour but contains more drama, and more ideas, than most writers manage in a dozen full-length works. Part psychological thriller, part topical scientific speculation, and part analysis of the relationship between fathers and their sons, it combines elegant structural simplicity with an astonishing intellectual and emotional depth...What a tremendous play this is, moving thought-provoking and dramatically thrilling' - Daily Telegraph

ON BREAKING CHARACTER

10 Caryl Churchill Plays to Read
by Maria Arroja Ferreira
October 30, 2019

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £40 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

    Please submit a license request to determine availability.

Scripts

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Authors

Caryl Churchill

Caryl Churchill

Caryl Churchill was born on 3 September 1938 in London and grew up in the Lake District and in Montreal. She was educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Downstairs, her first play written while she was still at university, was first staged in 1958 and won an award at the Sund ...

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