JC Santos and Bart Guingona are reuniting onstage for Caryl Churchill’s A Number, opening this October at WHYNoT in Karrivin Studios, Makati.

Presented by WHYNoT and The Necessary Theater, the production marks their second collaboration and will have a limited eight-show run. It also marks Santos’ directorial debut, with the actor taking on the dual responsibility of directing and performing in the production.

Santos and Guingona last shared the stage in the critically acclaimed, sold-out 2023 production of Red, which was directed by Guingona. This time, their roles are reversed behind the scenes, with Santos taking the director’s chair.

Onstage, Santos will portray three characters—Bernard 1, Bernard 2, and Michael Black—opposite Guingona as Salter, a father whose decisions set the events of the play in motion.

Written in 2002 amid public debate surrounding human cloning, A Number centers on a father who secretly had his son cloned and is eventually forced to confront the consequences of what he has done. More than two decades after its premiere, the play takes on renewed relevance amid the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and continuing questions surrounding identity, individuality, technology, and control.

For Santos, however, the story also goes deeply into family and the patterns passed from one generation to the next.

In his director’s note, Santos reflects on how a devotion to family can sometimes become a means of excusing harmful behavior, and how people may unknowingly pass on to their children the same patterns they once hoped to leave behind.

The production will also extend beyond theater through a collaboration with visual artist Miguel Uy, whose work examines technology, media and globalization in relation to individuality, identity and independence. Uy was shortlisted for the 2021 Ateneo Art Awards–Fernando Zobel Prize for Visual Art. 

A Number follows WHYNoT and The Necessary Theater’s previous collaboration, David Hare’s Via Dolorosa. The production won Best Production of Existing Material at the 2026 Gawad Buhay Awards, while Guingona received nominations for Best Male Lead and Best Direction.

A Number runs on October 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, and 18, 2026 at WHYNoT, 4/F Karrivin Studios, Makati.