rending, as well as ruthless,
Theodora, Joyce DiDonato’s
Irene transformed from a
Mrs Mop into a cheese-wire
strangler, and Jakub Jozef
Orlinski’s tender, gentle
Didymus, enjoying his
opportunities to get his kit off.
He exchanges his attire with
Theodora’s to get her out of
the brothel (with the help of a
pole-dancing sisterhood who
entertain us while others sing
Handel’s exquisite arias).
Mitchell and her
collaborators achieve a
technical tour de force with
their sliding multiroom decor.
She saves her biggest surpriseBrothel worker Julia
Bullock as Theodoracing sisterhood is a triumph
CAMILLA GREENWELLthe sons. Es Devlin’s set is red.
All the furniture and books
in Salter’s flat are red. The
lighting is red too. Futuristic,
you see. Plus it makes for a
cheaper paint job. I once saw
a production that did smart
stuff with mirrors, creating
extra levels of identity
confusion. No such fun here.
The first Bernard we meet
is a gentle soul with a London
accent. The second is nastier
and a little posher. The two
hear about one another
and the second
Bernard, the posh
one, who I think is
called Bernard 1,
ends up killing the
first, ie Bernard 2,
the gentle Londoner.When did you last see
your father? Lennie
James and Paapa
Essiedu in A Numberclone zone
MANUEL HARLANConfused? That seems to be
Churchill’s intention.
You can see why cloned
sons might not like each
other. Their individuality has
been stolen. But because the
Bernards are played by the
same actor, we cannot witness
the crucial moment when
they meet. The encounter has
to be reported, something
Churchill does only fleetingly,
without élan. She is no stylist
with words. You have to pay
extra for that.
James’s prosaic Salter hears
of the first (or is it second?)
Bernard’s demise without
betraying much sentiment.
One has seen blokes become
more upset when they burn
toast at breakfast. The action
moves to an art gallery, also
painted red, where Salter
meets the third of his fleet of
sons. This one, Michael, is
American, giving Essiedu a
chance to show his acting
chops. Michael is unfazed by
being a clone. Salter finds that
impossible to believe — which
is perhaps what much of the
audience is by now thinking
about the play, although some
of those whooping at opening
night professed to find it all
wonderfully amusing.
The masterpiece’s final
words are “You like your life?”
— pregnant pause, curtain,
wild applause from an
audience that is silently
thinking: “Thank God that’s
over and now we can leg it for
the pub.” The most important
number, perhaps, is the
running time: just 65 minutes.
Feels longer, though. cFor theatre tickets, visit
thetimes.co.uk/ticketsuntil the final scene. Where
Peter Sellars had Theodora
and Didymus strapped to
stretchers for a lethal injection
in his 1996 Glyndebourne
production, Mitchell’s Valens
(Gyula Orendt) tries death by
refrigeration with only a
slaughtered pig carcass and
sides of beef for company.
They are saved from an icy
death — contradicting,
perhaps, the warmth of
Handel’s final love duet — by
the intervention of Irene’s
Christian terrorist gang. It
may not be “in the book”, but
it made for gripping theatre.
A triumph. cTHE
CRITICS6 February 2022 17