Wilton's

. . . so the audience becomes part of her psyche, part of her . . . they get to peek behind the curtain, peel back the layers of her mind and look inside.” Director, Bruce Guthrie on Ella Gericke, the central character in Manfred Karge’s Man to Man, played by Margaret Ann Bain.

The play was Karge’s first. Born in 1938, he trained as an actor and was talent spotted, persuaded by Brecht’s wife, Helene Weigel, to leave drama school and join the couple’s Berliner Ensemble company – with which he is still closely associated, despite partings along the way. He wrote Jacke Wie Hose for his wife, Lore Brunner, who longed to get her teeth into a lead role after years as an ensemble actor. Karge based his story on what he believed to be an urban myth: a woman is widowed during the depression of the 1920s and takes on her dead husband’s identity and job in order to survive. Years later, he was sent a newspaper report confirming that the story was, in fact, true. The real Ella kept up her deceit for 12 years, whereas his fictional character sees it through many decades to retirement, by which time she has all but lost her own identity, drowned in the macho, cheap liquor-soaked world she has inhabited for so long.

The first English translation as Man to Man, by Anthony Vivis, was directed by Stephen Unwin at Edinburgh’s Traverse in 1987, with a young Tilda Swinton as Ella. She reprised the role at the Royal Court and, again, five years later in the film directed by John Maybury. Since its German premier in 1982, the play has been translated into 30 languages and staged around the world in countless productions. Man to Man is Wales Millennium Centre’s first, full in-house production and began its journey there in March 2015, before selling out at Edinburgh later that year. Now, WMC are bringing this bold and widely-praised version to Wilton’s as part of their landmark first national and international tour, which will take it from Cardiff, via Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Liverpool, to New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music. 


Co-directors Bruce Guthrie and Scott Graham


Poster for the Royal Court production, Tilda Swinton in John Maybury's film and Manfred Karge

Manfred Karge’s text, which has been compared to Eliot’s The Waste Land, comprises 27 ‘scenes’ or stanzas, each representing an individual memory re-lived by the now ageing Ella. He was always more interested in ordinary folk than heroes and villains so key events in 20th century German history are presented through Ella’s eyes, through the filter of her experience, from within her humble, fear-ridden existence.


Maggie Ann Bain on preparing for her role as Ella playing Max

Alexandra Wood’s translation, commissioned for this production, is the first by a woman, offering a female perspective on the plight of a woman whose life depends on successfully passing herself off as a man through the rise and fall of Nazi rule and beyond. Despite this historical context, Producer Pádraig Cusack, points out that "It oozes with contemporary resonances that could not be more pertinent today, not least the startling reality that women’s inequality remains rampant".  Karge, influenced by the Brothers Grimm, had written the original as a modern German fairy tale but Bruce felt that previous translations had lost touch with that influence. Alexandra’s interpretation re-connects with those more magical elements, as well as tapping into Bruce’s love of German expressionistic cinema, prompting him and the creative team to conjure up a mood of shadowy, spooky beauty. What’s more, Karge deliberately omitted stage directions – a generous gift which, combined with Alexandra’s translation, opened up a wealth of possibilities for set, light, sound and projection; the latter, designed by Andrzej Goulding, was also greatly inspired by Karge’s relatively recent addition of a new section to include the fall of the Berlin Wall.
 

Andrzej Goulding on his projection design for Man to Man

Early in the creative process, Bruce Guthrie explained that “This adaptation will very much be about taking the audience on a sensory journey as opposed to a narrative one, and I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to evoke different reactions from the audience based on the series of memories that are explored… It’s a fantastic play, and we’ll be trying various different techniques to establish a language and relationship with the audience, to take them on a journey with the character: projection, lighting, the way that we interact with the set, or with the audience, or the physicality of the piece.”

Bruce acknowledges that its episodic nature makes Man to Man very different to anything he has directed before, for stage or screen. His recent work has included The Bridge Project: Richard III with Sam Mendes and Kevin Spacey and directing the recent 20th anniversary tour of Rent. Here, in stark contrast, he co-directs a cast of one, who just happens to be his wife. His co-director is Scott Graham, Artistic Director of Frantic Assembly, the renowned physical theatre company responsible for movement in The National Theatre’s multi-Olivier winner The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, to name just one of their highly acclaimed works. The two have collaborated before, including on The Merchant of Venice for Singapore Repertory Theatre, and work together in perfect harmony – fortunately for their outnumbered cast of one.


Co-directors Scott Graham and Bruce Guthrie

Maggie toured with Frantic Assembly’s uncompromising boxing drama Beautiful Burnout so is no stranger to the rigours of Scott’s approach to physical theatre. She has acted on stage and screen for over 15 years and appeared in Emma Rice’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe last year. Even though she can boast considerable prowess at many demanding sports, from middle distance running to cycling and martial arts, Maggie still has to follow a punishing training regime to prepare for a show in which Scott literally has her climbing the walls of Ella’s decaying apartment. 

As Bruce remarked when the show was in its infancy, “It’s all up for grabs because the text is so rich and the memories are so potent. It’s going to be very exciting.” We know it will be and we can’t wait to share it with our audiences. Despite his advancing age, Manfred Karge makes a point of visiting as many productions of his play as possible. We sincerely hope he will catch this revival as it tours, especially during its run at Wilton’s.



Man to Man runs 12th to 23rd September and you can buy tickets here. We are also delighted to present some special post-show extras:  a Q&A with the creative team on 14th September and a discussion between Alexandra Wood and Bruce Guthrie on their reworking of the play on 18th September.