An electrifying creative team

Choreographer Jonathan Watkins transforms Christopher Isherwood’s masterpiece into an original contemporary ballet in collaboration with singer-songwriter John Grant and composer Jasmin Kent Rodgman. The creative team also features costume designer Eleanor Bull, with original costume concepts by Oscar-winning costumer designer Holly Waddington (Poor Things), set designer Chiara Stephenson – who has worked with Basel Ballet and artists like Björk  – as well as lighting designer Simisola Majekodunmi and sound designer Emma Laxton.

A healing meditation on sexuality, grief and midlife

Isherwood’s 1964 novel follows George, a gay, middle-aged professor navigating life in 1960s California. Widely recognised as a pioneering work of twentieth-century fiction, the novel was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film by fashion designer Tom Ford starring Colin Firth.

In this iteration of A Single Man, John Grant performs George's internal monologue while acclaimed former Royal Ballet Principal Ed Watson expresses the physicality of George’s exterior life, sharing the role with guest artist Jonathan Goddard. Throughout the day, George encounters an ensemble of other characters as he remembers his lover Jim: his friend Charley and a young student Kenny.

Telling the story of George inside and out, A Single Man explores what it means to be human.