Tilda Swinton in Man to Man [Ruediger Glatz]

TILDA Swinton delivers an extraordinary performance reprising her role as Max/Ella in Man to Man, Manfred Karge’s stark drama tracing a modern history of Germany.

Translated by Anthony Vivis, the play was first produced in 1987 at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, arriving at the Royal Court the following year.

This landmark revival reunites the award-winning creative team – revised by Stephen Unwin, with Bunny Christie’s spare design and lighting by Ben Ormerod.

It opens in 1930s Germany with the memorable line: “Those holiday cruises back in Hitler’s time/were really something. You could eat butter/By the spoonful.”

Working-class Ella recounts the brief marriage she shared with Max, who died of cancer. She decides to adopt his identity to get through what Brecht called “the dark times” ahead.

Swinton, a punk-ish Bowie-like figure, is clad for the most part in red Y-fronts, workman’s boots and a string vest. Ella takes on Max’s job as a crane operator, manages to dodge conscription during the war and works the fields in the lean years afterwards. Later she works in a factory producing plastic and elastic, awaiting the time she can claim Max’s pension.

Told in 28 short scenes over 90 minutes – snatches of conversation, meditations, doggerel and prose – it’s a fascinating account of a woman living in a man’s world; both reactionary and radical.

Karge adds two new scenes for this revival: the fall of the Berlin wall – the division marked by a line of red gaffer tape across the stage, symbolically ripped up by Ella – and the re-emergence of the far right.

Swinton is perfectly cast and mesmerising to watch, though the splintered monologue occasionally loses momentum.

Until October 24
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