A well-acted production let down by difficult source material
A Single Man at the Park Theatre London is a 2-Act Play based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood, and made more famous by the 2009 film starring Colin Firth. I have neither read the book nor seen the film, so I very much went into this production blind with only the vaguest of ideas of what the show would be about.
If I had not already known that this play started life as a book, a lot of the dialogue would have made it very plain regardless. A large portion of the play is a monologue by the main character and titular single man, George (played by Theo Fraser Steele) and I can absolutely see how these monologues could have been lifted directly from the pages of a novel. This is not necessarily a good or a bad thing, but it did certainly make George seem like a character rather than a real person. The script very much had all of the characters speaking far too verbosely to actually be mistaken for real people. This stylised way of speaking does work well in moments, but when the entire play is essentially impossibly eloquent characters talking about big and small topics in great detail, it does get a bit wearing. It also acts as a way of keeping all of the characters at an arm’s length. These are obviously not real people, and so I had some difficulty in actually connecting with them.
This play takes place over a single day in George’s life, and it is a day when both a lot seems to happen, but also nothing happens. The show is not massively driven by plot, we merely move from conversations between George and one character to conversations with another. The lack of connection that I felt able to build with George or any of the characters, unfortunately meant that I was crying out for something of true consequence to actually happen.
An issue that neither the film nor the book had to contend with is where to put the interval. The answer that this show comes up with I do not think really works. The first act feels really short at just 45 minutes, and it felt like we were still only just being introduced into the world, and then suddenly the lights go down and we have 20 minutes to think about what we have seen so far. Unfortunately, we have not seen very much.
Despite my misgivings with the script, there were some strong performances that helped to elevate the material. Olivia Darnley, playing Charley, is a breath of fresh air in the second act. She performs the tragic-comedy of her character brilliantly and brought some much-needed energy and excitement to the show in the second act. Freddie Gaminara, who multi-roles in this show, brings some great comedy out of very small moments. He is unfortunately mostly absent from the second act, as Olivia Darnley is mostly absent from the first, but they both helped to bring up the energy levels and interest in their respective scenes.
At 2 separate points in the show, there are discussions about race and minorities. These discussions are generally quite nuanced and raise some interesting ideas, but it is very noticeable that these discussions occur between performers in what appeared to be an all-white cast. I can only assume these discussions were taken from the book, but it did feel a bit peculiar to have a conversation about racism happening on stage with no apparent racial diversity being shown. The creatives behind this show may of course felt hamstrung by the source material, but I would question whether this wouldn’t be an area where greater creative license with the novel could have been used.
There is also a sort of grooming storyline that appears in the second act. Moments of this made me feel genuinely uncomfortable and I do wonder if that was the intention or not. In 1964, when the novel was written, I can see how it wouldn’t be considered grooming or an abuse of power, but through a modern day lens it does make the main character of George move further away from being likeable or sympathetic.
The set was very brutalist with a stone effect backdrop and stone blocks on stage becoming a bed, a table, and all manner of furniture. This was handled well and helped to convey the bleak and seemingly sterile nature of George’s life now. The sound design was equally as effective, if slightly too loud for 1 moment drowning out the dialogue being spoken.
The main word that comes to mind when I think about this production is that it was “fine.” Nothing was terribly wrong with it, but I was not wowed by anything and I will take very little, if anything away from this show.
A Single Man is playing at the Park Theatre London until Saturday 26th November.