A Single Man – Aviva Studios

Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 study of grief, A Single Man, is a recognition of the complexities of our inner thoughts at a time of crisis.

When fashion designer Tom Ford adapted the book for his 2009 movie of the same name, he chose to round off some of lead character George’s rougher edges. 

Ford also concluded the story more decisively.

In this contemporary ballet, Jonathan Watkins appears to have returned to the original source material, in terms of George’s complicated nature. 

Watkins has, however, been both more definitive and more hopeful about George’s future. With mixed results.

A Single Man is at times heartbreakingly emotional and tearjerkingly beautiful. But it is also, on occasion, slightly impenetrable.

That being said, this Factory International and Royal Ballet collaboration does kick off the 2025 Manchester International Festival in some style.

The Aviva Studios Law Family Hall is the perfect space to enjoy high-class dance and Chiara Stephenson’s set design is genuinely impressive.

The dancing space is surrounded by a giant grey sprue, one of those plastic frames you used to get with model kits or action figures. The ones where you twist the toy’s accessories out of the frame to play with.

Except, each of the parts are not accessories, but elements or locations in George’s life. Books, classroom chairs, a motel sign.

The result? We are truly experiencing a day in George’s mind.

As scenes play out, Simisola Majekodunmi’s lighting design illuminates the relevant ‘accessories’ to help show who or where is the focus.

It’s really clever.

What’s also world class is the ballet.

Watkins’ choreography is sensual, but it’s the steamy sexuality that is perhaps more surprising. There are lunges and thrusts and writhing positions that are incredibly erotic.

The movements tell us so much without words, in a way that only superb contemporary dance can. With a flick of a wrist or a bracing of the body, we understand intention and backstory.

As the body of George, Ed Watson exudes a stylish and effortless fluidity in his moments of love and joy.

This is then brilliantly contrasted with jagged and juddery movements as he’s filled with sorrow and rage and loneliness.

However, Watson is only playing the body of George. George’s mind is played by American singer John Grant, who has written original songs to accompany Jasmin Kent Rodgman’s score.

Grant has a powerful and emotive voice, but his role is not fully obvious. Even though he sits, quite literally, inside George’s head on stage. It isn’t until the pair hug at the curtain call that many understood the significance of his part. It is an idea that only partly works.

The songs, too, are a bit hit and miss. While they probably reflect the muddled and contradictory nature of our inner thoughts, and the source material, they are sometimes too literal lyrically.

The effect is that, with a few exceptions, the music doesn’t present us with the heightened version of reality we so often seek in ballet, or on stage.

Heightened lyrics can also help us connect. Instead, here there are moments where it feels the audience is observing, not truly penetrating or experiencing.

While A Single Man might be inconsistent emotionally, it is incredibly consistent in quality.

Led by Fiona Brice, the on-stage Manchester Collective musicians neatly evoke a sense of time and place. 

Societal homophobia and international paranoia are represented with screeching, discordant brass notes for example.

The wider ensemble of dancers are all superb, speedily losing real-life costumes to perform in flesh tone body suits daubed in paint for the transitions into scenes played out in George’s nightmares.

Overall, A Single Man is a stylish and impressive imagining. 

The message to let go, love yourself and live is one we can all get on board with.

There are moments of real emotional connection, but they are ultimately that. Moments.

A Single Man runs until 6^th July 2025 at Aviva Studios with tickets available at https://factoryinternational.org/

Reviewer: Peter Ruddick

Reviewed: 3rd July 2025

North West End UK Rating: