The Royal Court Theatre today announced a revival of Manfred Karge's Man to Man, starring Tilda Swinton in the lead role more than 30 years since she first brought it to life.
With this news, we're looking back on this historic production. In 1987, Man to Man (Jake Wie Hose) had its UK premiere as a Traverse Theatre and Royal Court Theatre production.
Directed by Stephen Unwin and translated by Anthony Vivis, this powerful story saw Tilda Swinton take on the challenging task of playing Ella, a widow who takes on her husband’s identity to avoid destitution. Over the course of the play Swinton transforms herself from Ella to Max who she lives as throughout the Depression and then the Third Reich.
Her performance was described as: "a defiant combination of the brave and the ridiculous, unexpectedly moving and a brilliant response to the East German writer’s style." (Sarah Hemming for The Independent Aug 1987) and "provocative and weirdly moving" (Saskia Baron for City Limits Dec 1987).
The significance of this performance and the value of a collaborative production seems to have stayed with Tilda Swinton as she reflected back in 1988: “Man to Man is the most collaborative piece of work that I have ever been involved in. We worked as an extremely tight team. I think that generally it is the case that in theatres these days, because of the commercial structures, teams can’t work like that, and at the Traverse this was not only possible but it was fought for – we were able to get it because it was the Traverse and because everyone realised that it was a very high priority.”
In a conversation with Saskia Baron in December 1987 she asserted that she kept "learning new things from Man To Man" and said that she wanted "to do it ‘til [she’s] 60."
At the age of 64 now, it only seems fitting that Tilda return to this star-making role - we wish her and the team at Royal Court Theatre the best of wishes as they rediscover the magic.
See a glimpse of the described staging in these photographs we have pulled from our archives.
Thank you to the National Library of Scotland for their archival support.
