Man to Man

The true story of a woman forced to take on her dead husband’s identity forms the basis of Manfred Karge’s one woman show, Man to Man. Directed by John Paul McGroarty and starring Samantha Dodds, this play attempts to tell an incredible story but is let down by an unclear script.

Karge’s tale of a woman driven to extraordinary lengths in order to survive in difficult circumstances is a thorough and well-meaning homage to the woman who sacrificed everything she’d ever known or loved in order to become her husband. While the major theme of Man to Man is the loss of identity and of the destruction of a sense of self, issues of femininity are the real driving force of this monologue.

The story is sensational and the script and the structure of Man to Man are both underdeveloped and disappointing, though this could be due to something key being lost in the translation of the play from German to English. What emerges is a piece that has a linear timeline but moves between locations, situations and times so quickly that it can be very difficult to understand what’s going on and keep up with the action on stage. Dodds excels in her role as the desperate widow, but the lack of a cohesive and clear setting for the play makes it very hard to follow and undermines her powerful presence on stage.