Local actors take on lead roles in company’s first production
A NUMBER, by renowned British playwright Caryl Churchill, is the first play produced by Grand Ambition, the new creative collective and producing company based at Swansea Grand Theatre.
Written in 2002 in the wake of the cloning of Dolly the Sheep, A Number is a two-man play structured around the conflict between a father and his sons – two of whom are clones of the first one. The play addresses the subject of human cloning and identity, especially nature versus nurture.
For director Christian Patterson it was a natural choice as Grand Ambition’s first play.
“I wanted to do a two-hander and I wanted to do something that was set in one place, partly through budget constraints but also through my obsession with story: a play doesn’t really need a tremendous amount of people if the story itself is good,” he says.
“Caryl Churchill is one of the greatest playwrights in the UK – her voice is like, massively, massively important. Ever since I saw A Number, I’ve had a mild obsession with wanting to either be in it or direct it.”
Grand Ambition’s mission is to actively seek out, mentor and nurture existing and emerging talent within Swansea and South Wales. With that in mind, two local actors have been cast in A Number.
Harry Lynn will play the three sons B1, B2 and Michael Black. Harry recently graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. He grew up in Swansea, and began training as an actor with the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre Company.
Between the ages of 16 and 19, he worked professionally on stage and screen in Wales; working with National Theatre Wales, Fluellen Theatre, Tornado Studios, Tell the Donkey and others. He then decided to pursue an academic degree at the University of Exeter, where he played leading roles in several major productions and was artistic director of a theatre society for a year.
After that he undertook formal actor training at RWCMD and cofounded his own theatre company – FISHING 4 CHIPS – who took a new piece of writing called Tradition! to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival ’22, playing to sold-out audiences and gaining two 5-Star reviews.
“I cannot wait to begin work on Grand Ambition’s production of Caryl Churchill’s thrilling drama A Number, especially to work with director Christian Patterson, whose performance in Theatre Clwyd’s Under Milk Wood partly inspired me to pursue a career in acting,” he says.
He’ll star alongside Andrew Lennon, who plays the father, Salter. Andrew trained in Bretton Hall, and the National Youth Theatres of GB and Wales. He’s worked with companies such as National Theatre Wales, the Sherman Theatre, Fio, Fluellen, Ignition Theatre and Unicorn Theatre for Children. Andrew’s very first experiences of the theatre were in the Swansea Grand – he remembers watching Robinson Crusoe there when he was about seven.
“The Grand has become a spiritual home for me, having performed on the main stage and in the depot on many occasions,” he says. “I’m so delighted to be working on this play and with Grand Ambition.”
Now the team are looking forward to the curtain going up – and Christian says the audience can expect to be challenged and left with questions.
“A Number isn’t just a play about cloning, nature vs nurture or individuality and neither is it a play about a father and his son/sons, though of course those subjects form a part of the equation,” he says. “It’s far, far deeper than that, and just when you think you know where the play is going it takes another direction, then another and another.
“It’s a play that throws up multiple questions but offers no answers and neither does it say ‘this is right and that is wrong’ – that’s left to the audience to decide. And that is why Caryl Churchill is such an important playwright and why her plays are so important and interesting to work on or watch.”
Michelle Mcternan, Grand Ambition’s company director, is equally delighted to be staging the play.
“This project is incredibly exciting for us as it’s the first play that we have produced as a new company,” she says. “We are so lucky to have an incredible team working on it as well as gaining local support from Swansea businesses. We have to say a huge thank you to Morgans Hotels for being our main sponsor on this.
“I think it’s amazing how Swansea businesses have risen to support the arts in our city. It is so important that we work together to champion each other with putting Swansea on the cultural map.”
■ A Number is at Swansea Grand tonight.