When analyzing the text (whether you have a physical book or a digital version), pay attention to these three core themes:
As you annotate your digital or printed copy, look for these recurring motifs: A Number Caryl Churchill Pdf
Salter treated his son like a damaged car. When "Bernard 2" started showing signs of distress, Salter didn’t try to fix the relationship; he went back to the lab for a new model (Bernard 3). The title is a pun: The children are literally "a number"—a statistical unit, a product batch number. When analyzing the text (whether you have a
To understand the demand for the script, one must first understand the chilling premise. A Number revolves around Salter (the father) and his son(s). The play opens with a devastating revelation: Salter’s original son, Bernard 2, discovered that his father had him cloned without consent. In fact, Salter had the original boy cloned multiple times. Churchill famously wrote the play after reading about
The play features only two actors (three if you distinguish the clones) and five short scenes. The characters are:
Churchill famously wrote the play after reading about Dolly the sheep. She was fascinated not by the science fiction of cloning, but by the emotional reality: What happens to love when a child is no longer unique? What happens to identity when you are literally a number (a copy of a copy)?
Searching for a study guide alongside your A Number Caryl Churchill PDF? Here is the essential breakdown: