Tilda Swinton is reprising her 1987 role in Manfred Karge's "Man To Man" at London's Royal Court Theatre, nearly four decades after her initial performance at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre.
The play, which delves into the life of a disturbed, poverty-stricken woman navigating the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler, has sold out its run.
When the lights rise, Swinton appears as a spectral figure on a stage littered with scrap yard debris, clad in a soiled string vest and Y-fronts, with unkempt hair and a stark, unbrushed appearance. The character's presentation is further enhanced by smeared ice cream on her face and hints of green underarm hair, suggesting decay.
Swinton portrays a working-class German woman who recounts memories of holiday cruises during Hitler's era. The narrative follows her life as a streetwalker, her love for a crane driver husband, and her subsequent survival strategy after his death. To cope, she dons his clothes, takes his job, and assumes his identity, effectively becoming her own widow.
The character's journey includes evading conscription into the German army, saving a communist friend from death camps, working on a farm in lederhosen post-war, and witnessing events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall. The production includes a contemporary addition referencing the rise of the AfD.
Directed and designed by Stephen Unwin and Bunny Christie, the play is described as a piece of agitprop designed to provoke and unsettle. Projections of Nazi Germany underscore the play's thematic exploration of how fascism can corrupt the soul and humanity.
Critics have drawn parallels between "Man To Man" and Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape," viewing it as a character study of grief and the struggle to maintain a sense of self and memory. The production has been a significant box office success, leading to anticipation of a West End transfer. The play is noted as the work of an artist dedicated to exploring complex and elusive themes.
