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Review Round Up: Man to Man, Royal Court Theatre
The revised adaptation uses Anthony Vivis’s translation and revised text to revisit Germany’s 20th century through a story of endurance.
- Oscar-Winner Tilda Swinton returned to the Royal Court Theatre to reprise her role in Manfred Karge's "Man to Man," a gender-fluid play she first performed almost 40 years ago at the same venue.
- Karge's 90-minute drama follows Ella Gericke, a working-class woman in Germany who assumes her dead husband Max's identity to survive, pragmatically switching genders through Hitler's rise and a world war.
- Stalking around Bunny Christie's set—a white box littered with technology and empty bottles—Swinton delivers an immersive, vanity-free performance, flickering between masculine and feminine modes of address.
- The production, marking a major event for the Royal Court's anniversary year, is mostly sold out; critics praised Swinton's "captivating" performance while noting the play's 28 scenes can feel "frustratingly sketchy."
- Updated to reflect the fall of the Berlin Wall and resurgence of the far-right, the play ruminates on how events shape identity, referencing "Lügenpresse"—the "lying press"—and Nazi atrocities.
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12 Articles
A play from Germany is the hit of the newly opened London stage season. Manfred Karge's »jacket like pants« is called »Man to Man« in the version of the Royal Court Theatre – and is a solo triumph for Tilda Swinton.
·Hamburg, Germany
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REVIEW: Man to Man
Reading Time: 3 minutesFrom the start, it needs to be said: Tilda Swinton is impeccable. In Man to Man at the Royal Court, she gives a performance so absorbing that even when the text becomes difficult to follow, the person standing before the audience remains impossible to look away from.
Coverage Details
Total News Sources12
Leaning Left2Leaning Right1Center1Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Left
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Left
50% Left
L 50%
C 25%
R 25%
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