WHYNoT and The Necessary Theater’s second collaboration brings the two-hander play about cloning, identity, and familial ties to the stage.
Three years after they shared a stage in the sold-out 2023 production of John Logan’s Red, JC Santos and Bart Guingona return to face each other again, this time as father and son. WHYNoT and The Necessary Theater have announced their second collaboration, an eight-show run of British playwright Caryl Churchill’s two-hander play A Number, opening October 9 at Karrivin Studios in Makati.
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Seeing Triple: About The WHYNoT And The Necessary Theater Staging Of A Number By Caryle Churchill
The production marks Santos’ debut as a director, and he has given himself a demanding assignment. He portrays all three of the play’s clone roles, Bernard 1, Bernard 2, and Michael Black, opposite Guingona’s Salter. Guingona directed the two in Red back in 2023; now, Santos takes the reins while stepping into the trickiest part of the text himself.
Churchill wrote A Number in 2002, when cloning dominated headlines and ethicists argued about what science was about to make possible. The play centers on a father who secretly cloned his son, and tracks what happens when that decision catches up with him. Santos sees the material speaking just as directly to 2026, when questions of identity have shifted from the ethics of replication to topics like generational differences and control by algorithms and machines.
Inherited Patterns
In his director’s note, Santos connects the play to issues closer to home. “We are a country that constantly speaks about family, but we should also ask what happens when our devotion to family becomes a way of excusing harmful behavior,” he states. He points to the way certain patterns repeat through generations. “We inherit so much from our parents, and then unknowingly pass it to our children. Sometimes we don’t even realize that we are reproducing the very things we once promised ourselves we would never become.”
When And Where To Watch A Number
A Number runs October 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, and 18 at WHYNoT, located on the fourth floor of Karrivin Studios in Makati.
Ticket information is expected soon on Instagram at @whynot.mnl.
Photos Courtesy of WHYNoT
Frequently Asked Questions
WHYNoT’s A Number is a production of British playwright Caryl Churchill’s 2002 play about a father who secretly clones his son and the consequences of that decision
A Number runs October 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, and 18 at WHYNoT in Karrivin Studios.
A Number is a collaboration between WHYNoT and The Necessary Theater, marking their second production together.
JC Santos plays the three clone roles of Bernard 1, Bernard 2, and Michael Black, while Bart Guingona plays Salter, the father.
A Number explores family, identity, cloning, and the ways harmful patterns can be inherited and repeated across generations.
