A FATHER and son team are impressing audiences in a new play about families, relationships – and cloning.

John and Lex Shrapnel give A Number a convincing sharpness, alone on stage for the one-hour duration of the Nuffield Theatre’s current innovative production.

This is theatre-in-the-round with a disturbing difference. The audience is split into four sides of a square, each seated behind a two-way mirror, the actors in a glass box with endless mirrored reflections of themselves fading clone-like into the distance.

John, who appeared in Gladiator and Notting Hill among film appearances, Waking the Dead on TV and is a Royal Shakespeare Company regular, will be reprising his role in Kenneth Branagh’s Macbeth in New York in the spring once the curtain comes down on A Number.

Of his current role, he said: “It’s an extraordinary play about families and relationships and I don’t think the fact Lex and I were both asked to do it was a coincidence.

“I think the director certainly had a sense of our similarities and it works very well.

“It’s the second time we’ve worked together and I’m enjoying it immensely. The other time was on Lex’s first job on a submarine with Harrison Ford, so it was a bit different!

Lex, who followed an appearance in the submarine movie K-19: The Widowmaker with several other film roles including Thunderbirds and showed up recently on TV in Midsomer Murders, added: “It’s proving an incredible experience doing a two-hander with your father about fathers and sons in a mirrored box!

“Dad has been such a big influence on me and his support has been priceless really, so I thought this was a wonderful opportunity.

“It’s inevitable that I’m somewhat like him, which raises some interesting questions linked to the play about nature and nurture.”

A Number continues at the Nuffield until Saturday. Limited tickets remain available. Click here>>