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PlayMakers Repertory Company’s PRC 2 second-stage series will open its fifth season with playwright Caryl Churchill’s intensely charged family drama with a twist, “A Number,” Sept. 7-11.

PlayMakers, the professional theater company in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will perform the play at 7:30 p.m. nightly and 2 p.m. Sept. 11 in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre in the Center for Dramatic Art on Country Club Road. PRC2 combines a topical production with audience discussions with the creative artists and other panelists after each performance.

In “A Number,” Churchill takes the age-old scenario of confrontation between father and son and turns it inside out. She explores issues of human identity and parental responsibility, tackling the nature-versus-nurture debate head on. In this family, the sons are actually clones of the father’s real son. Variables mount, guilt surfaces, lies are exposed and consequences cannot be denied as startling facts are revealed.

PlayMakers’ production will feature longtime company actor Ray Dooley as the father. Dooley also is a dramatic art professor and head of the professional actor training program at UNC. New York-based actor Josh Barrett will play the sons.

The Washington Post said “A Number” is “fiendishly clever,” and The Telegraph of London called it “intellectually and morally profound.” The Internet magazine Theatreworld said it is “a play that you will want to discuss and debate long after you have left the theatre.”

Tickets for “A Number” are available as part of PlayMakers’ 2011-2012 season subscription packages, or for $10-$35 for individual PRC2 shows. They may be purchased at www.playmakersrep.org or by calling (919) 962-PLAY (7529).

“‘A Number’ works like a detective novel,” said PlayMakers associate artistic director Jeff Meanza. “Full of questions and sharp dramatic twists, the play is perfectly suited to the PRC2 format.”

Photo: Ray Dooley: http://urxserve.ur.unc.edu/netpub/server.np?find&catalog=catalog&template=detail.np&field=itemid&op=matches&value=10488&site=Luminosity

PlayMakers contact: Connie Mahan, (919) 962-5359, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Spurr, (919) 962-4093, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it