Redefining Fatherhood and Child Cloning in the Posthuman World of Caryl Churchill’s 'A Number'

Carly Churchill’s play A Number (2002) depicts the relationship between a father named Salter and his original and clone sons. Salter, being an alcoholic addict, refuses to look after his “original” child named Bernard (B1 in the play) and sends him to a childcare centre two years after the death of his wife. The main reason that he sends his child to the social care centre is due to the fact that the child becomes abused and neglected, and does not seem to be intelligent and “pleasing” as he used to be once the mother was alive. Thus, instead of taking care of Bernard (B1), the father decides to clone his “original” child and look after the copy of B1. However, the doctors do not make one clone, but twenty clones of B1, who are named B2 and Michael Black in the play. Taking the play’s plot into account, the main purpose of this article is to look at the plot from a posthumanist perspective and determine the possible damages of science and technology in the near future, while threatening humanity and the real essence of being a human. Thus, this research explores how A Number examines human cloning and genetic research as potential catalysts for a shift towards a posthumanist dystopia. While these scientific advancements may initially seem to benefit humanity’s development, they could ultimately pave the way for a dystopian transformation, or, more precisely, a posthumanist dystopia.