A SINGLE MAN

Based on the novella by Christopher Isherwood

Directed by Jonathan Watkins

The Hall, AVIVA STUDIOS

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Jonathan Watkins’ new ballet adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man unveils itself as a quietly potent exploration of grief, love, and queer identity. The creative gamble of splitting the portrayal of George, physically through Ed Watson’s danced embodiment and emotionally through John Grant’s live voice pays off beautifully. It’s a collaboration that refuses the easy path, forging a live multilayered dialogue between body and soul.

Ed Watson, formerly of the Royal Ballet, brings raw emotionality and a life-worn authenticity to George’s every gesture. His performance pulses with the contradiction of restraint and release: disciplined form that fractures under the weight of loss, yet never becomes self-indulgent. When he moves, there is a tangible, visceral pull of emotional snapshots of his dead lover Jim. There is a touching beauty in his connection to his lost lover that is delicately but powerfully conveyed. Moments when the ensemble peel his lover from his arms feel like the palpable wrench known to anyone who has loved and lost.

John Grant’s original songs, composed with Jasmin Kent Rodgman and performed live by the Manchester Collective linger around the edges of the set like memories that refuse to be tucked away. His lyrics map out George’s interior life: moments of tender self-awareness, bitter regret, and the faint glimmer of hope. This duality between the seen and unseen, the spoken and unsaid gives the piece a rare emotional depth. There are however points in the lyrics where they move too much toward exposition of the original text as if not quite trusting the dancers and the audience to fully grasp the narrative.

The choreography, directed by Watkins with visionary care, balances the elegance of classical ballet with a contemporary urgency. Flashbacks, abstracted movements, and physical abstractions of inner pain are choreographed with a poet’s intuition. They evoke the 1960s California while remaining rooted in George’s emotional landscape as a gay man who must mourn his lover and navigate his grief in private as a love that dare not speak its mind.

Visually, the production is a lavish and intimate feast. Oscar-winner Holly Waddington’s costumes are very 1960s and use colour to real effect. Splashes of red for Charley and Kenny are a nod to the red of lifeblood and passion. The bodysuits the ensemble cast frequently strip down to are waxy pale and marbled in the muted colours of decomposition. Chiara Stephenson’s sculptural set combines stylized restraint with emotional resonance. The ash grey construct of a sprues containing everything required to function in daily life subtly alludes to George’s attempt to mask and try to play at normality. The screens that reappear mimic a vortex and serve well to mark out the segments when George retreats into his memories. The play of light and form enacts the interplay of memory and reality, and the staging honours George’s solitude while also embracing the small, human moments that break through despair.

In the context of MIF’s wider “Dream Differently” programme for 2025 which champions hybridity and emotional complexity then A Single Man stands out as a highlight. It is less a huge spectacle than a subtle, achingly human meditation on loss. The final moments feel hopeful and redemptive. Perhaps we can all do well to hold a sense of possibility that the pain of grief can be redemptive and like kintsugi pottery we can be broken and yet emerge stronger.

AVIVA STUDIOS 2nd – 6th July 2025