The Doppelganger effect

Theatre doesn’t get more pure or true than in the Peacock’s current production of Caryl Churchill A Number. It is meticulously directed by Annabelle Comyn, with two perfectly paced, honed and wonderfully understated performances from Alan Williams and Stuart Graham in the leading roles as father and sons.

Yup, you read that right. Williams plays a father who learns that doctors created 21 clones of his son as a child and Graham plays three of those sons. But even though the contentious subject matter of the play, ostensibly, is cloning, that’s not what grabbed Graham when he read the script. It was the father and son aspect of the story.
“The first time I read A Number I really did have a gut connection to it, not an intellectual, cerebral response at all,” he says. “In fact, intellectually, I’m sure that I didn’t even get one third of what the play is about on a first reading because it is so complex in ways. So, what grabbed me was the emotions that go on between a father and son and about these characters striving for answers without actually even knowing what the specific questions are. I know that may sound convoluted but this play really is more about the asking of questions than the providing of answers.
By raising the moral issues that surround cloning the play, says Graham, is hugely provocative. “One thing that is great about this play is that you do hear people debating the issues in the foyer, or in the bar afterwards. It is hugely provocative in that sense.”
It sure is. But when it comes to Stuart playing three roles he knows that could have led many a lesser actor to grandstand, to show off how ‘versatile’ they are. But he, clearly, studiously avoided that temptation.
“Thanks for the compliment!” he responds, laughing. “But at the beginning of the rehearsals we started with three markedly different characters, different accents, different everything. But gradually it grew on me that what was most interesting about these three guys was not how different they were, but how alike they are. Now, that is stating the obvious, I guess, because they are clones! But that whole notion became much more intriguing to me as time went on. So in some ways, although I want to keep them as three separate identities, I wanted the similarities to be there as well.”
Graham was helped in such aspirations, and overall, by the directorial skills of Annabelle Comyn. Specifically in that the setting is so minimalist – simply two chairs on a stage – so all eyes are on the two actors all the time.
“Well it is a piece that I imagine is kind of frustrating for a director because it is so conversational and the writing is so precise, that you have to push the two actors up front and see what happens,” he says.
Stuart Graham pauses, almost as though he’s lost to a continuing internal dialogue about A Number rather than talking to me – which, in the end, should show you just how provocative the play is.
“But what’s really interesting to me about the way it’s been staged is that one side of the audience are going to favour Alan and one side will favour me,” he muses. ‘That’s why I think that even after seeing it once you’d have to go back and see A Number a second time just to get that other perspective.”
A Number is currently running at the Peacock.