Theatre review: Man to Man

The Royal Court's 70th Anniversary season has included looking back at a few landmark productions, and in Man to Man we get the most direct revival yet, as the original creative team of Manfred Karge's monologue has returned, along with the original star who hasn't appeared on stage since she was last here in the same role: Tilda Swinton plays Max, an elderly man who takes us through the story of his life, revealing that he is, in fact, his own widow: Max died of cancer in a provincial part of Weimar Germany, leaving his young wife Ella without a source of income. So Ella buried Max in a grave with her own name on it, took on his identity and his job as a crane operator and lived through the rest of the 20th century as a man, very occasionally becoming Ella again if it was to her advantage.

And this being Germany in the 20th century there will be many occasions when she has to find her best advantage, whether to get ahead or simply survive.

In fact for all that it features the most famous rice since Anneka in a chest binder and vest, with a lucky rabbit's foot providing a bulge in her red Y-fronts, this feels a lot less like a play about gender and bending it, a lot more like the story of a Mother Courage figure who'll survive at all costs, especially if those costs are to someone else, to get to her comfortable retirement of drinking beer in front of the TV.

There's a remarkable five minutes in Karge's play where Ella reenacts the days of a prisoner kept in a cell by a sadistic SA officer, only to casually reveal at the end that she was the officer not the prisoner. It makes the play's argument about the twisted morality of the survivor beautifully, the trouble is there's another 90 minutes of Stephen Unwin's expressionistic production around it.

This features Swinton roaming around scribbling on Bunny Christie's white box set, putting on various coats as she takes on new personas, and squirting ketchup on the walls. It's German, is what I'm saying. And as so often with European directors' theatre I'm left thinking maybe this is all disguising a script that doesn't really rise up to its premise and that I eventually found very dull. I've seen Man to Man before and wasn't convinced then, but this extended version - it now also takes in fascism rising again in the 21st century - I found a slog. I think I liked Tilda better when she was Tom Lenk dressed in bubblewrap.

Man to Man by Manfred Karge in a version by Anthony Vivis revised by Stephen Unwin is booking until the 24th of October at the Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Downstairs (returns and rush tickets only) then touring to Edinburgh, Berlin and New York.

Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Ruediger Glatz.