More than just a number

Times Reporter

 

Rosebud actor Nathan Schmidt recently had a chance to play the challenging role of three brothers, two of which are clones. The production, ‘A number’ was shown at the Engineered Air Theatre stage at the EPCOR centre from Nov. 23 to 27 by Fire Exit Theatre.

“Acting in a show and kind of delineating different characters and using your same person to sort tell three different stories and try to convince and audience you’re three different people,” said Schmidt. 

“That’s a great challenge as an actor and really fun to do. I had a lot of fun doing that and sorting it and trying to find a way that I could be really clear with that story telling.” 

‘A number’ is a script by Caryl Churchill is an intense production which has people discussing human cloning and the advances researchers and geneticists are making today with technology. 

Schmidt’s said the play begins with a conversation between father and son. The son, Bernard, played by Schmidt, has just found out there are clones of him around the world. He found out at the hospital is trying to sort out how it all happened. 

“The larger concern is while he’s there the people at the hospital tell him he’s not the original,” said Schmidt. 

“His whole identity kind of gets called in to question.”

Schmidt said the son starts thinking if he’s not the original son then where is he. After questioning his father, played by Louie Koutis, Bernard is told the truth about the original son. 

Schmidt said people are all taught very early that they are all unique with their own fingerprints and DNA. He feels the question Churchill is raising is what if that was no longer true, what if they could replicate you and it had happened and you walked around the corner and saw a whole bunch of you.

“What does that do to you in terms of your identity, in terms of you being unique in the world. So those are the issues that this guy really starts to deal with is how do I exist in this world anymore, what is my worth based on, it’s certainly not based on being unique,” said Schmidt.

“Are we genetically predisposed to being a certain way or is it how we’re raised that makes us unique and loved. Or, are we unique because of our genetics. What if you could replicate the genetics exactly, does a person still end up unique or not. These are the ideas that she’s writing about and she wrote this play kind of directly after the cloning of Dolly the sheep.

“I think the purpose of Fire Exit telling that story, was to (say) what right do we have to go down this road, do we have a right, is it right, lots of moral and ethical questions surround this whole cloning thing.”

Schmidt said he thinks of the story of Frankenstein when he considers cloning. Right now, Schmidt said there is a system in place where children will go into adoption or foster care if there is no one to take care of them and be responsible for them. He said now geneticists are looking to create people destined to be put in foster care because there would be the issue of who is responsible for them. 

While Schmidt admits he has a lot of concerns over the concept of human cloning, he sees that there could be potential benefits from it as well.