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A profound meditation on loss of identity
The once controversial book A Single Man receives an excellent stage adaptation, writes SIMON PARSONS
single man
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A Single Man
Park Theatre
CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD, the writer whose novel inspired the musical Cabaret, always considered A Single Man to be the favourite of his nine books. This semi-autobiographical work follows a day in the life of a British expatriate gay man living in Santa Monica, post Cuban Missile Crisis.
Originally controversial because of its homosexual protagonist, the book is about far more than this and at the heart of Simon Reade’s excellent stage adaptation are the multiple roles George, the eponymous character, performs in facing a day unable to move on after the tragic death of his partner.
George, played with dignified restraint by Theo Fraser Steele, reveals moments of true anguish only when totally alone and caught off guard by his memories, otherwise his roles as college professor, freeway driver, friend and mentor allow him to continue to live for the moment reflecting on the world around him and his own identity defined not by the past or others but by what he knows.
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