Book Review: A Numer by Caryl Churchill

A Number by Caryl Churchill

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this play, but once again post-modern literature/drama is not my strongest point.



I liked that Churchill opted to wrestle with the idea of human cloning and what that means in respect to people and their ability to understand. A Number is a two man play, and a story about a father and his sons. I am using the term sons, which is of course debated during the play. Are these "sons" really his sons or are they less his sons because they are clones? Does the man only have one son? If so then what are the others? The first clone, B2, argues that they are human, and of course in the play the clones display more generally accepted "human" characteristics than the father and son. I feel like this is the underlying theme of the play.



The play progresses through lies; the father constantly lies to his sons. To B2, he depicts a history for the clone which doesn't exist. To his own son, he lies about the boy's childhood claiming to be a better father than he actually was. The father was abusive to his son after his wife/the mother kills herself. The boy suffered from problems after the mother dies resulting in the father sending him away. Enter the clones. The father attempts to make his "perfect son." A son with the same DNA as the original.



The original son kills B2, and has a long conversation with his father after where the father takes responsibility for the course of events. The original son also dies; he kills himself. Finally, the second clone is introduced, and he has a successful life unlike the others. The last scene depicts a conversation between the father and the second clone. They talk about the clones happiness. Apologizes are central throughout the play as well. The father apologizes to B2 and his son, and then at the end of the play the second clone apologizes for being happy when the father feels like he has lost everything. The lay actually begins and end with apologizes.


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Book Review: Far Away by Caryl Churchill

Far Away by Caryl Churchill

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm not going to lie, Post Modern Literature scares me. I never feel like I complete understand it, and always need to talk it through with a friend. That being said it is 1:40am, and I can't sleep.
In the first act, the girl sees her uncle beating people, and her aunt talks her through it. Telling the girl that it is nothing; her uncle is saving these people, and she herself is part of a new order.
Later, the girl makes hats which are worn by those being executed, and even later the girl finds herself back at her aunt's home. Now the whole world is at war, not just people, but animals too. The girl shares the story of how she arrived at her aunt's which includes killing. And the play ends with the girl saying to terribly interesting thing, "Who's going to mobilise darkness and silence? that's what I wonder in he night" and the last lines in the play which talk about water, and how it is "very cold but so far that was all. When you've just stepped in you can't tell what's going to happen."
I like the first line because during this war everything is participating, and the next step in an all inclusive war would be to have darkness fight too. The second lines, summarize the fears inspired by war; you just go in without any ideas about what could happen.


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