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…