When announcing their upcoming season, it seemed practical for The Old Vic to be doing a number shows with small casts (they previously had Camp Sigfreid over the summer with Luke Thallon and Patsy Ferran): with Covid very much still crippling the theatre industry (and the world), there are less people to have to worry about than in a big scale production like their annual A Christmas Carol.
But there's real merit in the version of Caryl Churchill's superb A Number that goes way beyond logistics.
It's a semi-futuristic take on a father having multiple sons thanks to the wonders of human cloning (remember Dolly the sheep? Well imagine they got that on an even bigger scale...) and his relationships with all of his children. Director Lyndsey Turner's production feels incredible timeless, in the fact that this house has been plucked out of time and is being presented 'nowhere'. Designer Es Devlin's set is flooded by red (a nod to blood and family ties perhaps) and it helps to create a truly unsettling feeling before the piece has even begun.
Considering its previous iterations have attracted pairings like Michael Gambon/Daniel Craig and Roger Allan/Colin Morgan (the latter of which was concluding it's run just as theatres closed in March 2020), it's obvious that it takes real talent to tackle this material, but Turner's cast are more than up to the task.
I May Destroy You's Paapa Essiedu has arguably the harder role, in the fact that he plays all the versions of the son who has been cloned - both against his will and without his knowledge. Essiedu gets three distinctive roles to get his teeth into - a real gift to any actor - and does so excellently. With his characters running the fully gammit from shy and anxious to ferocious and vengeful, he is able to put all his skills to great use and really draw in the audience - his delivery of the word 'Daddy' over and over again rung in my ears long after I left the theatre.
Yet, it is The Walking Dead's Lennie James who's stoic take on Salter that ultimately wins him the evening (if such a thing can be done in a two-handed).
In his encounters with the different versions of his son, Salter is offered the chance many father's long for: the chance to get it right. He is given the opportunity to divulge as much or as little information as he likes, able to gage the reactions from the version he is presented with. It faces the audience with a very real moral situation: children really are the product of their parents decisions, and should they be privy to everything about them or should some things remain a mystery? The continuity in James' performance is clear yet sporadically chilling, with the audience able to watch him make the same mistakes over and over again but for what he believes are good reasons - something any watching father will undoubtedly be able to relate to. As a pair, Essiedu and James are electric, dynamic and, most importantly, believable - there isn't a moment that you question the relationships aren't genuine.
Few writers works are revived and still relevant in the frequency that Churchill's work is, indeed this production marks the fifth major UK production of this piece since its creation in 2002. It's good to question why that is and the answer seems clear: no matter when her work is produced, it means something different. That's the beauty of a piece as meticulously crafted as A Number: with a running time of just 65 minutes, Churchill knows what every single word means and why, and yet certain moments play different dependant on when it's revived - the laughs would not have been the same in 2002, just like they will not be same in 2042. But it's ageless quality means that it will endure the changing world and continue to speak to an audience on a basic level for years to come: what does it mean to be a parent, and how do you ensure that your child does not make the same mistakes you did?
The answer? Who knows - just keep trying to do what you think is best.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
February 2022
The Old Vic, London
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