Fringe 2024 - Review - A Number - A Question of Identity - 5 Stars

Threads review, mnfringe mind f**k part 2, show 8: A Number - a father is confronted by the multiple clones he made of his son; some of the encounters go better than others; some of them go very, very wrong; a meditation on life and identity, offspring and parenting; funny and haunting in equal measure - 5 stars

“Did you give me the same name as him?”
“Would that make it worse?”
“Probably.”

This production of Caryl Churchill’s play “A Number” was a late addition to the Fringe this year, but you wouldn’t know it. (That’s because they didn’t throw the thing together at the last minute, they’d been rehearsing and getting ready in the hopes they might get the call up off of the wait list and, just a few days before the festival began, they got in.) Now, if I was going to bet on somebody to be able to pull something like this together on the fly anyway, it would be director Matt Sciple and actors Gabriele Angieri and Clarence Wethern.  I’ve seen great work by all three of these artists in the past, so just based on their involvement alone, I was on board.  And man, did they deliver.

“You called them ‘things.’ I think you’ll find they’re people.”

It’s hard to spoil “A Number” because Caryl Churchill is, as usual, screwing around with the truth of the situation. The nature of reality and who’s a reliable narrator and who you can trust are things that come up a lot in Churchill’s work and they’re on full display here.  “A Number” takes place in a time, not unlike our own, but human cloning is a thing. Society has apparently gotten quite good at it.  So good that when Salter (Angieri), a father, loses (?) a son, he finds a way to have that son, Michael (Wethern), cloned so he can remain a father and still have a child to parent.  However, as an adult, Michael has just run into yet another clone of himself, and has discovered that there are very likely even more of him out there - a number of them, hence the title - and it leaves him more than a bit unsettled so he comes to his father for reassurance.

“She was a person under a train.”

Now, that question mark (?) in the previous paragraph is because, as the play continues, Salter meets with other clones of Michael, who each have their own particular personalities (and issues) and Salter tells them each different things, depending on what they need and what he wants to get out of them.  And Salter’s own appearance deteriorates over time, so he’s finding the juggling act, and the consequences of the different Michaels meeting or avoiding one another, to be a little much to take.  However, it’s hard to feel very sorry for Salter because he’s clearly a liar.  But what is he lying about and why?

“Does he have a child?  Because if he did, I’d kill it.”

Did the original Michael die as a young child, making way for the need for replacements?  Did his mother die or merely leave?  Has Salter ever been married at all, or had children of his own in any way? Quite literally everything is up for debate. But of course the central question is about identity - who is the “real” Michael? if there are other people out there walking around with your face, who are you, who are they, who are you all to each other, and the people around you? What does it mean to be a parent, to be a child, to be related?

“I thought I had a second chance. Now I can’t make it right anymore.”

We don’t get a lot of answers in “A Number” but Caryl Churchill tends to like spinning up the audience’s mind on big questions, and this science fiction drama, very much grounded in a familiar reality, is just real enough to unsettle us and get us to ask ourselves some very big questions, even if we don’t have the answers. “A Number” will follow you out of the theater when it’s over. I’m still thinking about it, even as I’ve seen dozens of other shows since.

“No one ever says, ‘We’re the bad guys.’”

If you want to sit for an hour with two great actors, chewing over a really good play, you should check out “A Number.”  It’ll haunt you in the way that the best plays always do.

5 Stars - Very Highly Recommended

 

Here's some handy links to coverage of shows I've seen in the Fringe this year getting 5 and 4.5 Stars (Very Highly Recommended), 4 and 3.5 Stars (Highly Recommended) as well as the shows ranking 3 stars or less; also links to this year's Top 10 list and Top 11-20 list, also a full list of all returning favorites to this year's Fringe, plus a link to ALL the 2024 Minnesota Fringe Festival coverage.

While I have your attention, please VOTE :) 

Minnesota is currently in the early voting period for our Congressional and local primaries (I had the U.S. Senate, Congress, and the Minneapolis school board on my ballot) - final day to vote in the primary is Tuesday, August 13th, but you don't have to wait until Fringe is over, go vote right now :)

Early voting for the Presidential Election itself in Minnesota starts on Friday, September 20th. We're lucky to have a lot of time to get our voices heard, so cast your vote, and then make sure everyone you know and love is registered and gets to the polls to vote. Election Day, your final date to vote, is Tuesday, November 5th.

As a queer playwright and theater maker, I want a government that's compassionate and competent enough to keep us all safe and healthy, keep theaters open and running, and personally, I'd just like to be legal myself and keep the weirdos out of government and out of my personal business (and the things I post on this blog, for instance). We all have our reasons, so let's make sure we get the leaders we need and deserve, and get our friends, family and co-workers to raise their voices, too.

Find where to vote and what's on your ballot (with links to candidate websites) and other resources at the Minnesota Secretary of State's website.

For other resources on how to register, volunteer or donate, locally or nationally, check out Vote Save America.

Vote.  Raise your voice. We're not going back.