Cape Town will be welcoming fellow performers Timothy and Samuel West to the Fugard stage during October.

Timothy West’s wife Prunella Scales (the much-loved British comedy actress) starred opposite John Cleese in Fawlty Towers and now her husband and son come together to perform A Number at the Fugard Studio. A Number, a touching father-and-son drama, starring acclaimed British father-and-son duo Timothy and Samuel West, comes to the Fugard Theatre Studio 4 – 29 October 2011, straight from its sell-out London run.

Samuel West has appeared with his mother in Howards End and Stiff Upper Lips, and with his father Timothy West on stage in A Number, Henry IV Part I and Part II. Sam and Timothy have played the same character at different ages in two films, namely Iris (2001) and the 1996 television film Over Here. In 2006, all three gave a rehearsed reading of the Harold Pinter play Family Voices as part of the Sheffield Theatres Pinter season. Timothy West (Iris, Endgame, The Day Of The Jackal, Cry Freedom, Churchill And The Generals) has appeared in many primetime British television series and is well known on London stages.

In the South African premiere of A Number at the Fugard Theatre Studio, the Wests are directed by highly regarded British Director Jona than Munby, with designs by Paul Wills and lighting by Hartley Kemp. A Number was written by Carol Churchill in 2002 when the controversies surrounding the possibility of human cloning made regular news headlines. The play features a father (Salter) and his three sons, Bernard (B1), Bernard (B2) and Michael Black, two of whom are clones of the original. The play examines the intricate concept of identity, the age-old question of “nature versus nurture” and the highly controversial concept of human cloning. A Number originally debuted at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 23 September 2002 with Michael Gambon and Daniel Craig.

It has since had various sold out runs in London and in the USA, and is coming to the Fugard Theatre Studio after its most recent sold out run at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London in November 2010, Performances of the 50-minute long production at the Fugard Theatre Studio will take place on Tuesdays at 21:00, and Wednesday to Saturdays at 19:30 and 21:00. Tickets are R200 per seat and will be available from Computicket and the Fugard Theatre Box Office (021 461 4554) from Monday 15th August.