Park Theatre

A Single Man

****

Occasionally, you come across a drama that's hard to pigeon-hole.

This premiere of a new adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel, focuses on university professor George, a middle-aged gay Englishman living in Southern California.

He continues to mourn the death of his long-term partner Jim, trying to establish a sense of being part of something and reflecting why he is not.

He has a good job, respect, wonderful, supportive friends and an enviable lifestyle. To resolve his predicament, he meditates on the now, moving-on, and the impossibility of the future.

We follow George though a typical day, watch how he prepares himself (even his ablutions), his drive to college listening to the radio, the delivery of an English Literature lecture, his supermarket panic when confronted with commercialism, getting very very drunk with fellow Brit Charley (a bubbly Olivia Darnley) and a visit to a bar-haunt to find one of his students (Miles Molan) waiting for him.

But, although loved and valued, he still feels “other," an outsider. Theo Fraser Steele (soon to appear as Timothy Laurence in The Crown) has the look of a young Colin Firth. Tall, well-spoken and oozing dependability, he distils George’s flaws, capturing his clipped English accent, waspish comments, and a just-detectable air of vulnerability.

Two cast members play a variety of supporting roles and all are excellent. It was hard to believe that this is Miles Molan’s professional debut, he is brimming with understated presence.

Anything that kicks off with Ol’ Blue Eyes is going to be good and Philip Wilson's production is a hugely rewarding night at the theatre.

Simon Reade’s adaptation is thoughtful, powerful and, wryly funny, littered with cultural and political references (including one that the audience applauded as a swipe at the chaos in the Tory party) it is a compassionate study of grief and loneliness.

A Single Man runs at Park Theatre, Finsbury Park until November 26. https://parktheatre.co.uk/whats-on/a-single-man