'A Number' Available Online (Temporarily)

This is the place to discuss all of Mr. Craig's work on stage.

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Anglophile
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Post by Anglophile »

Never say never, he's unpredictable enough to do that sort of thing :wink:
The more joy we have, the more nearly perfect we are. ~Spinoza~
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agrippina
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Post by agrippina »

Daniel onstage in London with an audience full of devotees?! That would be the perfect place for a DtD Convention :wink:

Would he have the courage to come onstage? How many ambulances and paramedics would be needed to help the fainted and otherwise afflicted fans? It could be possible worse than a Beatles concert in the 1960's!

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Post by Germangirl »

agrippina wrote:Daniel onstage in London with an audience full of devotees?! That would be the perfect place for a DtD Convention :wink:

Would he have the courage to come onstage? How many ambulances and paramedics would be needed to help the fainted and otherwise afflicted fans? It could be possible worse than a Beatles concert in the 1960's!

Agrippina
Well, he`s proved, he`s a brave man, although - being Bond doesn`t need half as much guts as going on that stage - with us waiting for him. :D
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

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Post by jovichick »

Anglo, thanks for posting the pics, you could put these in the jeans thread as he looks particularly hot in them!!!!! XXX
I will be keeping my eye on our Government's money....and off your perfectly formed arse - You noticed!!
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Post by Dunda »

A review of "A number" :)
Some quotes:

'Stephen Daldry's wonderful production, rich in images of father-son tenderness, tension and grief, is dominated by Craig. With eloquent, economic emotional touches he makes the son and two clones distinct individuals. And Sir Michael, although a little too stagey, powerfully expresses Salter's rueful anxiety. It's an astonishing event.'

''Add stunning performances from Michael Gambon and Daniel Craig, and a lean, powerful production by Stephen Daldry, and you have one of the most spell-binding - and challenging - theatrical events of the year.'

''Daniel Craig gives a virtuosic display as three of his identical sons, brilliantly suggesting just how differently each of them has turned out.'


http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/reviews/a_number.html
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Dunda
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Post by Dunda »

--Premiere of A Number in London, reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge

Caryl Churchill's new play brings to mind experiments made in the early 1900s. Behavioural scientists would take orphaned identical twins and bring them up, one in an orphanage, one in a loving home and compare the results. These experiments on genetically identical individuals were soon banned as unethical.

The Royal Court assembled their dream team: the acting prowess of Sir Michael Gambon and Daniel Craig, who plays Paul Newman's son in The Road to Perdition, the director Stephen Daldry and the writer Caryl Churchill. Director and author are repeating the partnership forged in Far Away.

A Number is about the three sons of Salter, Michael Gambon's character. All three are played by Daniel Craig. There is Bernard One, aged forty, the original. He is aggressive, violent and has nightmares. Bernard Two, who is thirty five years old, exhibits no aggression but worries about being "just a copy". Michael Black, also thirty five, is from the same "batch" as Bernard Two but has been brought up by different parents. Bernard One was neglected by his father after the death of his mother and was taken into care at his father's request. Salter is not a good father to Bernard One and, unusually in parenting, he gets a chance to try again with Bernard Two but is unaware that Bernard Two is one of "a number". Salter redeems himself with the raising of the second child but like Cain and Abel, jealousy will intervene.

Churchill's writing is full of interrupted and unfinished sentences. It is all the more credit to the cast and the director that they deliver the prose in a completely natural and believable way. It's likely to be a bit confusing, unless you are prepared for there to be three characters played by Daniel Craig, as each clone looks identical and wears identical clothing. This is a frightening brave new world of scientific experiment with little thought as to the effect on the cloned children and their progenitor.

Michael Gambon is one of the most watchable actors on the London stage. A large presence with a softly murmuring voice. His character must show himself sometimes trying to wriggle out of his responsibility, sometimes to be reassuring. His reaction to his son's revelation of the secret batch is to talk about litigation and hundreds of thousands in damages rather than the psychological impact on the son. Gambon conveys all this ambivalence and gives us an insight into some of the characteristics his sons may have inherited from him. He probes for differences between the sons, curious as to how disparate they are and is by turns tender, contrite, anxious. In order to meet Michael Black for the first time, he slowly puts on a tie, the formal wear reflecting the seriousness of the meeting.

Daniel Craig has the interesting but difficult triple role of three sons who look similar but who are very different. As directed by Daldry, it works, and baby face Craig conveys the essence of each man, one dutiful, one criminal and one detached. Is A Number a worthy vehicle for this assembled talent? Almost.

LINKS
to Curtain Up's reviews of Caryl Churchill's plays
Far Away
The Skriker
Top Girls


A Number

Written by Caryl Churchill
Directed by Stephen Daldry
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starring: Michael Gambon and Daniel Craig
Designer: Ian McNeil
Lighting Designer: Rick Fisher
Sound Design: Ian Dickinson
Running time: One hour with no interval
Box Office: 020 7565 5000
Booking to 16th November 2002
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 28th September 2002 performance at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, The Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London SW1 (Tube Station: Sloane Square)


Source: http://www.curtainup.com/number.html
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Post by Dunda »

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Post by Dunda »

Attack of the clones in A Number

The play examines family relationships

By Neil Smith
BBC News Online

It is feast or famine for London's theatregoers at the moment.

At one end of the spectrum is Tom Stoppard's Coast of Utopia trilogy at the National: a cast of 40 wrestling with nine hours of meaty ideological debate.

At the other is Caryl Churchill's A Number at the Royal Court: one act, two actors, in and out in under an hour.

The odd thing is that Churchill's dense, unsettling play gives the viewer just as much to think about as Stoppard's bum-numbing opus.

Replica

The titular "number" in the Churchill work refers to the unspecified quantity of clones that have been made of Bernard (Daniel Craig) - the volatile, possibly deranged son of Michael Gambon's 60-ish patriarch Salter.

The performances are magnetic

In the first of five elliptical scenes, Salter tells his favoured clone, also called Bernard, that he is the replica of a child lost, along with his mother, in a car crash.

In the second, however, we learn that Salter's wife actually threw herself under a train and that he had Bernard number two made when the original went loopy, probably as a result of parental neglect.

Later we meet one of the other clones - a schoolteacher called Michael who has lived his life blissfully unaware of his bizarre provenance.

Tangled

Obviously, the not-so-fanciful scenario touches on all manner of political, ethical and scientific quandaries.

It also addresses the desire some parents have to genetically create the perfect child by eradicating imperfections in the test tube.

But Churchill is much more intrigued by the tangled relationships between fathers and sons, the concept of the bad seed and the way we seek to perpetuate ourselves through our offspring.

Incidentally, these are themes that feature in current film release Road to Perdition, in which Craig also appears.

Fireworks

Simply staged on a stark rectangular dais, A Number has a topicality and prescience that more than compensates for the lack of theatrical fireworks we normally associate with director Stephen Daldry.

And in the shuffling, bear-like Gambon and the subtly mutating Craig - wearing the same nondescript clothes throughout yet expertly differentiating between each of his incarnations - it boasts two (or should that be four?) magnetic performances.
Inevitably, there will be some punters who will feel short-changed by the brevity of the piece.

Yet as Churchill so ingeniously suggests in this powerful cloning drama, it is not the quantity but the quality that counts.


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source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainmen ... 285044.stm
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Post by StarryDannyFan »

Thanks Dunda - it's very interesting play! Shame it was in 2002! Daniel plays another mentally ill person AGAIN, what is it with him and 'loopy' characters????

StarryDannyFan xx
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Post by Dunda »

just found this

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Post by Germangirl »

You have a good run finding rare pics :D

Its one of these haunted looks - like his world just broke apart...
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

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Post by Thelma »

Does someone still have the file?
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Post by Germangirl »

Thelma wrote:Does someone still have the file?
Unfortunately no - we have tried to find it, very much so - but nothing yet :(
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

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Thelma
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Post by Thelma »

Just saw it was back online at the end of 2008. I hope it will again :cry:
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Post by Germangirl »

Thelma wrote:Just saw it was back online at the end of 2008. I hope it will again :cry:
:shock: :shock: I was? And gone again? *is really, really angry*
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

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