WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
A profound meditation on loss of identity
The once controversial book A Single Man receives an excellent stage adaptation, writes SIMON PARSONS
(L to R) Theo Fraser Steele as George and Miles Molan as Jim and Kenny
[Mitzi de Margary] 
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
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.
More from this author
SIMON PARSONS is taken by a thought provoking and intelligent play performed with great sensitivity
SIMON PARSONS is gripped by a psychological thriller that questions the the power of the state over vulnerable individuals
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
