It’s easy to forget the time when homosexuals were branded ‘faggots’ and children told to stay away from us. This impressive dramatisation of Christopher Isherwood’s novel A Single Man immerses us in California in the early 1960s and we enter a more closeted world where a university professor can’t tell his students he’s gay. Isherwood was gay but this is no gay rights saga, this is a story of love and loss as we share the grief of George, played quietly and impressively by Theo Fraser Steele, mourning the sudden death of Jim, his young lover, killed in a traffic accident. George is a single man again.
The simple but very effective set design by Caitlin Abbott takes us to George’s Santa Monica flat, his daily bathroom routines, dressing for work, watched over by mystical paramedic figures in naval uniforms, moving with a balletic quality, watching George’s vital stats when he’s asleep and helping with his daily rituals. The metaphysical feel continues with his late partner Jim passing across the set. Jim, is the constant presence in the play as George misses all they had together – like the poached egg breakfasts, when he and Jim had their best conversations. Steele captures the loneliness and sadness of the bereaved gay man with pathos and respect.
The story happens on just one day; from dawn one Friday through to dawn on Saturday morning. We meet Mr Strunk, the homophobic neighbour played with genuine harshness by Freddie Gaminara, who doesn’t want his much more liberal wife, played neatly by Phoebe Pryce, to socialise with George. George visits a woman friend dying in hospital, also played by Phoebe Pryce. There’s Charley, George’s oldest girl friend, performed with great exuberance by Olivia Darnley, who wants to return to England whilst “Geo”, as she calls George, is the classic ex-pat Englishman who wants to stay in America. A good drink cements the pair’s special bond. And most movingly the student Kenneth, for whom George slowly drops his guard and reveals, in sensitive, subtle ways, more of his true self.
It’s in the second act that the story really takes shape as student Kenneth and teacher George drink together in a bar. Kenneth jokes about taking orders from “Sir”, with a hint of gay roleplay. They swim at the beach and then go back to George’s flat to dry out where Kenneth looks after George, puts him to bed, and for just a moment in time George once again has a young man who cares for him. Miles Molan plays a terrific inquisitive, sensuous, strong role as Kenneth, whilst also aptly playing the mostly silent part of the late lover Jim.
The student creates the emotional space for the rather stiff upper-lipped Englishman to relax and rest after the traumatic weeks since losing the love of his life. It is here most of all that the play talks of hope and a positive future, and of the power of human relationship to heal. The physical, sexual connection between George and Kenneth is present, and yet also seems to hide under the surface. Swimming at the beach, Kenneth comes up behind George and holds him, the way gay men do. A physical moment which only lasts a second but which rejuvenates the forlorn George. It was such a different time, and Philip Wilson’s superb direction captures this hidden world of love – that still does not speak its name – beautifully.
A Single Man is revealing for a modern audience. It takes us back before rainbow flags, ‘coming out’ and gay pride, to Isherwood’s time, where the closet door was either totally shut or just slightly ajar. The happy relief is that George had a life with Jim, and despite his passing the young man stays alive in his older lover’s heart. A heart broken but not destroyed, and we see it partially healed by the love of a great friend and the joy that comes from opening himself up to meeting and touching a new soul. This adaptation of A Single Man is an absorbing, thoughtful, uplifting spiritual journey, and one well worth taking.
****
Photos by Mitzi de Margary
A Single Man is at the Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 3JP until Saturday 26th November. Box Office: 020 7870 6876 (Mon-Sat 10am-6pm).
parktheatre.co.uk/whats-on/a-single-man
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