A Number

British playwright Caryl Churchill weighs in on the subject of human cloning with her deliciously absurdist and a-tad-bit feminist commentary on the great debate. Set in the near future, A Number is about a man suffering the loss of his wife and son. In his grief, he arranges to have his boy cloned–times three. But thirty years later, those triplets come back mad and kicking. This is a dark drama of devil’s advocacy, in which Churchill imagines the emotions and environmental influences a cloned human might face. During its 2004 premiere, New York critics called the show “Beckettian” and compared it to Harold Pinter’s Theater of Menace. That’s big league! 528 Hennepin Ave., eighth floor, Minneapolis; 612-339-4944; www.illusiontheater.org