Studio Theater opened its season this week with Caryl Churchill's new play, "A Number". It is not much of a play, and besides that, as a 60 minute one act show, it does not give the playgoers much for their money.
It is a two actor play (easy on Studio's budget), and stars Ted van Griethuysen and Tom Story. We have all seen too much of van Griethuysen by now, and while Story is a good, young actor, he is wasting his time on this waste of a story.
The story is about human cloning, a topic that was done to death in Boys from Brazil, and does not merit attention anew. It is about a drunkard of a father, his son and their clones. This is not a topic to rivet the attention of anyone.
A few other points. The stage is barren, except for some flashing photos (accompanied by loud music) reflecting off the flats between scenelets. Who needs this? It appeared that its purpose was to allow van Griethuysen to cross his right leg over his left, or vice versa, without the audience seeing him. In this, it failed. In addition, although the several short scenes take place over a lengthy period of time, van Griethuysen wears the same ugly black and white pinstripe suit in each. Does he always wear the same clothes every day for years, or does he have multiple, identical (perhaps, cloned?) suits? And as for Tom Story, although he tussles his hair a bit differently and changes his gait a bit depending on which clone he is playing, he is always wearing the same ugly, tan shoes. Is one to think that 20 clones of the same person, growing up without contact with each other, thirty years after the fact would all purchase the same ugly, tan shoes? We expect more of Studio than this.
It is a mere wisp of a play. We can only hope that Studio does not continue with a mere wisp of a season.
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