A Single Man review — can dance do justice to this gay classic?

Times

a day ago

The choreographer Jonathan Watkins's ambitious new dance-and-song adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's 1964 gay literary classic A Single Man, which also became an acclaimed movie starring Colin Firth, has is full of dualities. For starters, he has pulled off a double-casting coup.
From the classical realm is Ed Watson, former principal dancer at the Royal Ballet and one of the most distinctive talents to come out of that institution during the past quarter-century. Jonathan Goddard has demonstrated equally stellar skills in a slew of abstract and narrative-based contemporary dance performance for about as long.
For anyone familiar with their work the prospect of seeing the pair on stage — and playing lovers, no less — is frankly mouth-watering. The actual result in this co-commission by the Royal Ballet and the Manchester International Festival, however, is problematic.
Set over a 24-hour period in sun-drenched southern California circa the early 1960s, and in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Isherwood's novel is a highly internalised account of the dissociation experienced by George, a middle-aged English professor mourning the untimely loss of his lover Jim.
Throughout the day George's encounters with a handful of people — including students, one of whom sparks an attraction, and a close female friend (the excellent Kristen McNally) — test his feelings of loss, longing and alienation. Will he cling to grief, memories and fantasies or instead embrace life?
Watkins's two-act take on Isherwood's slippery, restrained text is never less than intelligently considered. His boldest decision was to split the character of George in two. For the initial run of performances in Manchester, it is Watson who, with one exception, embodies him. (Goddard plays George at this Saturday's matinee and, when the production transfers to the Royal Opera House in September, he and Watson alternate in the role.)
George's mind and thoughts, meanwhile. are mellifluously voiced by the singer-songwriter John Grant, a burly figure occupying a central area of Chiara Stephenson's striking, object-adorned split-level set.
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Further carried along musically by Jasmin Kent Rodgman's lyrical original score, played live by the five-piece Manchester Collective, and featuring a capable supporting ensemble of dancers, A Single Man is sensitively attuned to the anxious, homophobic time and hedonistic place in which it is set.
It helps that Goddard and Watson's dancing is shot through with grace, tenderness and lust. But Grant's songs sometimes tip over into banality, while the work overall is both curiously emotionally muted yet, ultimately, overly sentimental.
We watch George lecture, shop, visit the gym. We sense the underlying ache, especially when Watson doubles over breaking into sobs. But Watkins's desire to offer George — and us — a redemptive glimmer of hope feels shallow, even sugary. There are things to admire here, but this production is an exceptionally mixed affair.★★★☆☆115minAviva Studios, Manchester, to Jul 6, factoryinternational.org/mif25; Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, London, Sep 8-20, rbo.org.ukFollow @timesculture to read the latest reviews