"A Number"
"A Number"
#0"A Number"
Posted: 2/5/05 at 1:47amDoes anyone know anything worth hearing about this show? I'm going to see it tomorrow night, and I know absolutely nothing about it. Thanks in advance!
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#1re: 'A Number'
Posted: 2/5/05 at 2:02am
It's brilliant, but very understated and minimalist in construction. A very dense 75 minutes and every single line must be paid attention to. Beyond cloning, it's about the nature of personality and individualism and uniqueness -- what is it that makes you, you? It goes beyond genes and experience and childhood memories. It's something truly ephemeral.
It's also about regret and trying to make up for one's past mistakes and fathers and sons and the futility (usually) of trying to fix the past.
It's quite a headtrip which isn't easy to take in all at once, but upon reflection, I found the questions it posed haunting me. A very different kind of theatrical experience. The acting is suerb. I hope you enjoy it, but don't be surprised, if by the end, you feel like you've been put through a ringer.
#2re: 'A Number'
Posted: 2/5/05 at 2:06amThank you very much - I'm really excited. Do you know who's in the cast right now, I know it's changed since the original.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#3re: 'A Number'
Posted: 2/5/05 at 2:14amArliss Howard replaced Sam Shepard as the father. Howard actually is a better and more nuanced actor (though Shepard was quite good). Dallas Roberts is still playing the sons/clones and is absolutely amazing (one of the best young actors in the business). I hope you enjoy it (though, again, this play makes you WORK a bit as an audience member in order to appreciate it).
#4re: 'A Number'
Posted: 2/5/05 at 2:20amI love Dallas Roberts - he was wonderful in A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD, I'm very excited that I'll be seeing him. THANKS!
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#5re: 'A Number'
Posted: 2/5/05 at 2:31amRoberts is simply incredible (this is the fourth play I've seen him in and I saw "Home at the End of the World"). His performance is a tour de force -- a master class in acting. Simply mesmerizing.
#6re: 'A Number'
Posted: 2/5/05 at 7:35amDallas Roberts is going to be a huge star very soon, esp. since he's about to play Tom opposite Jessica Lange's Amanda in "The Glass Menagerie", and he deserves all of his success. He's fantastic in this play, which I rank among Caryl Churchill's best work. I haven't seen it since the cast change (Sam Shepard was terrific), but from what I've heard from Margo and others on the board, it's sounds like it is still amazing. Have fun!
BeeBee
Chorus Member Joined: 2/4/05
#7re: 'A Number'
Posted: 2/5/05 at 7:51amWhat other plays did you see him in, Margo? I saw him in Burn This and A Number.
#8re: 'A Number'
Posted: 2/5/05 at 7:54amHe was the only part of "Burn This" that was any good. I would like to know who cast two of the best actors in America, Ed Norton and Catherine Keener, in roles that they were both so ill suited for. I did like Elisabeth Shue as a replacement Anna. She was very good.
Razz77
Broadway Star Joined: 11/22/04
#9re: 'A Number'
Posted: 2/5/05 at 11:25amGo see 'A Number' before it closes next week -- Arliss Howard made me not feel bad at all that I missed Sam Shepard, and Dallas Roberts performance CANNOT BE MISSED. It's a very 'still' experience -- you feel like you shouldn't and cannot move during the entire show -- but it's really transfixing if you can get involved. One of the best things I've seen all season.
mrs.gotti
Swing Joined: 2/6/05
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#11re: 'A Number'
Posted: 2/6/05 at 11:16pm
Roberts was outstanding in Adam Rapp's NOCTURNE at New York Theatre Workshop about 4 years ago, the show that first brought him to the attention of NY theatregoers. In addition to it being remarkably assured and nuanced performance, it was also a fairly stunning feat of memorization (Roberts effortlessly handled some two hours+ of dense prose-like text -- he was narrator and had 99% of the dialogue in the play).
He was also terrific in Charles Mee's True Love at the Zipper as part of an ensemble that also included Laurie Esterman, Paul Mullins and Jayne Houdyshell.
#12re: 'A Number'
Posted: 2/6/05 at 11:19pmI adored it, it was so great. Dallas was brilliant!
Videos