What makes us who we are? Our genes? Our upbringing? Or something less easily explained?
Those questions hover over “A Number,” the compact and unsettling play by acclaimed British playwright Caryl Churchill that comes to Ancram Center for the Arts this month.
Churchill is known for smart, provocative plays that take on contemporary and historical subjects in language that can be both straightforward and startling. Her work rarely ties its questions into a neat bow. Instead, it exposes their complexity, leaving audiences to keep chewing over them after they leave the theater.
In “A Number,” those questions are distilled into the relationship between one father and three sons — all played by the same actor.
Salter, played by John Wojda, is confronted by his sons one at a time, with each encounter revealing more about a disturbing experiment in cloning. One son has discovered that he was cloned. The other two discover that they are clones of the first.
For director Jeff Mousseau, the play has been lingering in his mind for years.
“Churchill is an incredible writer. A lot of her pieces are larger than we can take on. But I’ve been drawn to the dynamic of the father/son relationship in this one,” Mousseau said.
Mousseau said he had been thinking about staging “A Number” for about four years. At its core, he said, the play asks “What forges our identity?”
“Nature or nurture? Of course, with AI, the play now has a relevance it may not have had four years ago, when I first began thinking about it,” Mousseau said.
The production presents an unusual challenge for its director and actors. Drew Ledbetter plays all three sons, requiring him to distinguish among characters who share the same genetic identity.
“Churchill’s writing, while accessible and approachable, operates at a certain heightened level. Capturing her rhythm is important,” Mousseau said.
For Ledbetter, Mousseau said, the challenge “is finding three versions of the same character….differences in behavior, attitude and tone.”
That sense of a life coming apart also informs the physical production. Set designer Sarah Edkins worked from the idea that, as the sons discover they are clones, Salter’s world is crashing down around him.
The premise may belong to the realm of science fiction, but Churchill’s focus is intensely personal: a father, his sons, and the question of how much of who we become can be traced to biology, upbringing, and the people closest to us.
Mousseau said the hourlong production was an invitation to wrestle with those questions rather than resolve them.
“It’s a think piece,” Mousseau said. “It asks profound and provocative questions about who we are. It’s about an hour long, and people can go out to dinner after and talk about it.”
“A Number” runs Oct. 1-4 and Oct. 8-11 at Ancram Center for the Arts. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. On Saturday, Oct. 10, performances are at 2 and 7 p.m.