Wales Millennium Centre’s poignant and powerful production of Manfred Karge’s Man to Man opens in Cardiff at the Richard Burton Theatre on September 8th, prior to a nationwide tour. The play will visit London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Liverpool, before embarking for the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. This will mark Wales Millennium Centre’s first production in the USA.
This acclaimed one-woman play tells the life story of Ella; a woman forced to adopt the identity of her dead husband in order to survive in Nazi Germany. Based on an incredible true story, we witness her struggle and determination during her plunge into a new masculine world of beer, schnapps and poker; a claustrophobic existence dominated by the fear of discovery and the changing face of authority in a volatile twentieth century Germany. Compromising her own identity for survival, shunted from one memory to another, the audience experience the horror of the Second World War from a unique and deeply personal perspective.
Renowned as one of the UK’s leading presenting houses, Wales Millennium Centre has recently embarked on producing work with the intention of taking the very best made in Wales to the world. As one of our first productions, Man to Man demonstrates the bold ambition of Wales Millennium Centre as a national home to the performing arts – to Inspire our Nation and Impress the World.
Man to Man opened to 5 star reviews in Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2015. Translated by award-winning playwright, Alexandra Wood, this new version unites the talents of a multi-Olivier and Tony award-winning creative team, led by directors Bruce Guthrie (Director of RENT the Musical & The Last Mermaid) and Scott Graham (Artistic Director of Frantic Assembly and Movement Director of Olivier-winning West End/Broadway production, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time).
Bruce Guthrie, said: “Man to Man is a series of fragmented memories that our protagonist Ella is remembering and re-living. She is a working class character with no sense of self pity: a hero in many ways who finds herself having to make life and death choices on a daily basis. I found that compelling when I first read the script. It is a familiar yet alien world. This version is about taking the audience on a sensory journey, evoking different reactions based on the series of potent memories explored.”
There are only two performances in Cardiff, so grab your tickets while you can – www.mantomantheplay.com. Interview with Bruce Guthrie and Maggie Bain to follow.
Bethan Cook
