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'Wife' Transfers Well to Broadway
NEW YORK (AP) -- "The most singular, eccentric individual the Cold War ever birthed" has made a triumphant transfer to Broadway. That's how Charlotte von Mahlsdorf is described in the opening moments of "I Am My Own Wife," Doug Wright's exotic, almost heroic tale of a real-life German transvestite, born Lothar Berfelde, who survived not only the Nazis but the Communists, without relinquishing her unusual sexual identity. Wright's artful scrapbook of a play, which opened Wednesday at the Lyceum Theatre, was a hit last summer for off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons. In the larger Lyceum, it works just as well, thanks to Moises Kaufman's inspired direction and an elegant production design (sets by Derek McLane and lighting by David Lander) that puts the audience right in the middle of a spooky, ghost-filled room stacked with ancient gramophones, clocks and assorted bric-a-brac. To describe "I Am My Own Wife" as a one-man show is a misnomer, although there is only one actor on stage - the astonishing Jefferson Mays. Besides Charlotte, Mays portrays a parade of characters, including Charlotte's sadistic father, a lesbian aunt, Nazi officers, East German police, American soldiers and even the playwright himself. Yet it is as Charlotte that Mays makes an indelible impression. The actor, using a slight Teutonic accent, is dressed in black: a simple skirt and blouse, offset by a string of pearls. On his head is a black kerchief and he's wearing large black shoes. Mays' demeanor is smilingly confident, almost impish as he works his way through a startling tale of endurance - one that doesn't always show Charlotte in the best of lights. "I Am My Own Wife" uses transcripts from Wright's interviews with Charlotte as she recounts a tortured childhood, the brutal days of World War II and then life under the Communists, particularly after the Berlin Wall went up. Later, Charlotte becomes a celebrity in Germany as the Wall tumbles down, but its collapse also unearths some unsettling news: The country's most famous transvestite may have been a spy for the East German police. Wright doesn't stint on Charlotte's moral ambiguity. Did she rat on friends in order to survive? The answer is never made clear. But it makes this most peculiar soul all the more human. "I Am My Own Wife" revels in a particular time and place, but it is more than a historical document. The play is a vivid portrait of a unique person whose ability to endure has been turned into a highly theatrical journey. Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. # # # # # |
