Taru Sinclair, Barnaby King & Carla Grant at Newhouse 06


by Manfred Karge
Performed by Taru Sinclair
Directed by Bob Lockwood



About the Play

An old man retells his life: from carefree girl to crane operator, from young bride to soldier, from femme fatale to farm lad; Man to Man is an epic story of identity-switching in the fight for survival. Inanimate objects from the sparse set take on purpose as chairs become buildings and hiding places and lamps transform into other characters. This one-woman show is an adventure in the power of story and personal transformation.


Responses from UK audiences:
"Gripped me from beginning to end...fast-paced with surprising twists".
"A wonderful piece. Witty and moving."

Written in 1982 by German playwright, Manfred Karge, this witty and demotically poetic monologue , Spanning 50 years of history, with a cast of at least twenty, aged 8 to 80 and of both sexes, Man to Man is one-woman show of limitless possibility. The role, famously taken on by Tilda Swinton in the 1992 film version, is a demanding feat of chameleon-like metamorphosis, requiring dozens of characters to be played by the one performer.


"...Man to Man is a pungent, distrubing, electrifying solo show about an ordinary working class woman, who survives the Germany of the Weimar Republic and of Hitler..."(Joyce McMillan, The Guardian)