A Review

Mesmerizing Story, Mesmerizing Performance

By R. J. Donovan

"I Am My Own Wife" is in town for a brief visit at The Wilbur Theatre through Sunday, April 24.  In a way, that's a shame.  Because more people should have an opportunity to see it.

This show received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It received the Tony Award for Best Play.  And Jefferson Mays (left), the sole actor who plays more than three dozen characters over the course of the evening, received a Tony Award for his amazing performance.

A quick thumbnail description of the show does not do it justice. “I Am My Own Wife” is about a 60-year-old German transvestite who survived both the Nazis and the Communists and lived to tell a fascinating story of strength and perseverance.

The story chronicles playwright Doug Wright’s discovery of, introduction to and subsequent interviews with Charlotte von Mahlsdorf.   Born male, Charlotte learned early that life was not going to be unlabored. But with the help of a very in-tune aunt, she gained understanding, established a strong sense of self and made a life for herself.

Along the way, she survived an abusive father; spent time in prison; collected antiques, clocks and gramophones; created a museum in a century-old house that she restored from floor to roof with her own hands; maintained an authentic gay German cabaret in her basement; wrote a book; and received the Medal of Honor.

We first meet Charlotte as she is beginning a tour of her museum. As she displays her treasures, she describes each piece with the love and pride of a parent describing a favorite child. 

Mays is dressed all in black -- a plain jumper, kerchief, stockings and shoes. Around his neck is a simple strand of pearls. The subtleties he adds include a certain physical stance and a slight tremor that make the character hauntingly real. 

Physically frail but with a will of steel, Charlotte maintains a glowing gaze and a winsome but slightly secretive smile. She is not unlike many of the pieces from her museum -- old, unadorned and with a patina indicating practical use. And she itemizes her treasures in much the same tone and style that she itemizes her life.

Through flashbacks and interview sequences, Charlotte shares the memories of her life with conviction and steadfast belief. She is a survivor. The playwright himself terms her an impossibility, adding “You shouldn’t even exist!”

But as we go deeper, contradictions arise and both her interviewer on stage and the audience in the theatre begin to question the narrative of her life.  Has she really done all she claims to have done? Did she actually kill her own father? Was she a willing informant for the German secret police, turning in one of her friends? Has fiction become fact purely through its endless retelling. The lingering mystery is part of what makes "I Am My Own Wife" so compelling.

“I Am My Own Wife” began at the Sundance Theatre Laboratory, went through workshops at Chicago’s About Face Theatre and at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, had its world premiere at Playwright’s Horizons off-Broadway and subsequently moved uptown.

The touring production is identical to the production that graced the stage of the Lyceum Theatre in New York last year. Derek McLane's set ranges from one deceptively simple room of the museum to a gigantic wall of antiques that suggests the vast collection Charlotte has amassed. David Lander’s lighting lends a beauty to it all. And Director Moises Kaufman nicely balances Charlotte's quiet strength with the more emotional characters and situations that swirl around her.

Start to finish, the heart of the show is Mays, who gives an extraordinary performance as the complex, puzzling woman who’s termed the singular most eccentric figure to come out of the Cold War.

Although he spends most of his time channeling Charlotte, Mays seamlessly shifts to present more than 30 other characters as they emerge in the story, painting each with a unique look and sound. He's so adept that when he morphs into a brutish, bellowing interrogator, you almost forget the same actor was playing Charlotte a mere second before. 

Bottom line, "I Am My Own Wife" is an arresting theatrical experience that should not be missed.

"I Am My Own Wife" is at The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont Street in Boston, through April 24. For information, call 617-931-2787.

-- OnStage Boston

04/22/05