Tilda Swinton Revives 39-Year-Old 'Man to Man' as New Scene Targets Nazi Revival

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 12

At London’s Royal Court, Tilda Swinton has returned to Manfred Karge’s Man to Man 39 years after first playing Ella Gericke, a woman who assumes her dead husband’s identity in 1930s Germany.
A newly added 28th scene gives the revival its sharpest edge, directly confronting the resurgence of Nazi ideology and premiering five days after the far-right AfD topped state polls in Saxony-Anhalt.
Swinton’s multicharacter performance drives the production, shifting across men and women as Ella navigates war-era scrutiny, including a chilling moment when co-workers try to verify her masculinity through circumcision.
The Royal Court staging, set to travel to Edinburgh, Berlin and New York, also reflects how the play’s themes have shifted since 1982, with gender fluidity now reading as lived reality rather than metaphor.