Father and son Timothy and Samuel West will star in Caryl Churchill’s A Number at the Menier Chocolate Factory this autumn, returning to roles they previous played in Sheffield four years ago.
The drama, directed by Jonathan Munby, is part of an autumn season that also includes Ken Hill’s music hall caper The Invisible Man and the European premiere of US hit Accomplice.
Churchill’s A Number, a familial drama exploring cloning, identity and the nature versus nurture debate, marks Samuel West’s first return to the Menier Chocolate Factory since he directed Dealer’s Choice in 2007. More recently the former Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres has been seen playing Jeffrey Skilling in the hugely successful Enron. He is joined by his father Timothy, whose career has seen him perform across London with companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, English Touring Theatre and Royal Court.
A Number runs from 29 September to 5 November. It is followed by The Invisible Man (12 November to 13 February), which is directed by former Open Air Theatre Artistic Director Ian Talbot.
Ken Hills’s adaptation of HG Wells’s classic novel sees the hideous happenings that shook the bucolic village of Iping when the sinister Griffin arrived wrapped in bandages and with a distinctly unsociable manner, told as a music hall romp with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humour.
Accomplice, which runs from 4 September, is part game, part theatre and part tour. Set on the streets of SE1, it sends audiences on a walking discovery of theatre and mystery. Armed with basic information and aided by clues and cast members along the way, each group of audience members must piece together the meticulously crafted plot.
Accomplice is based on a successful American idea, which debuted in New York in 2005 and proved so popular that two further versions were created, 2007’s New York-based Accomplice: The Village and 2009’s LA offering Accomplice: Hollywood.
The Menier Chocolate Factory has fast become one of London’s most influential fringe theatres, transferring productions including Sunday In The Park With George, La Cage Aux Folles and A Little Night Music to both the West End and Broadway with award-winning success. It is currently represented in the West End by hit musical Sweet Charity and the Willy Russell double bill of Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine, which both started at the Menier. At its home venue it is currently staging a Trevor Nunn-directed revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects Of Love, which plays until 11 September.
MA