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 Jefferson Mays turns in a riveting solo tour de force performance playing more than three dozen different roles. June 20, 2005
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Through July 10
With a text by talented Doug Wright, astute direction by Moises Kaufman and a riveting solo tour de force performance by Jefferson Mays, "I Am My Own Wife" is captivating, witty and altogether compelling.
Based on a true story and inspired by interviews conducted by the playwright over several years, "I Am My Own Wife" tells the fascinating and astonishing tale of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (christened Lothar Berfelde at birth), a transvestite antique collector who remarkably survived the Nazi era and the subsequent Communist regime while keeping her unique identity and precious collection of century-old antiques.
As amazing as von Mahlsdorf's story is the solo performance of Mays, who portrays the iconoclastic and enigmatic collector along with more than three dozen others who were touched by her. Mays is mesmerizing as he transitions among characters with great fluidity; he makes character shifts obvious with only the smallest gesture. No wonder the show has garnered Tonys for best play and best actor, the Pulitzer Prize for drama and an Obie for best director.
When we first see Mays (as von Mahlsdorf), he enters from behind a wall of lace; a slim figure, clearly a man wearing a black dress, a black headwrap, sensible shoes and a pearl necklace. He looks at the audience, smiles and then disappears, only to return carrying an antique phonograph. Soon we are aware that we are in a floor-to-ceiling collection of antique pieces (some of it broken junk): sideboards, gramophones, clocks, sofas, etc.
Onstage are a table and three antique chairs, and a couple of ubiquitous gramophones. The collection is her life story -- which includes a cross-dressing lesbian aunt and a brutal Nazi father -- in communist East Germany under the watchful eyes of the Stasi, the Communist secret police. At one time, she worked as a Stasi informant -- all this in order to survive. Or so Wright concludes.
What comes through in "I Am My Own Wife" is the utter complexity of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf and her instinct for survival. The play evokes many agendas, including that of the stuff of biography. What is truth and what is fiction? We will never know. All that we do know is that "I Am My Own Wife" is an extraordinary theatrical event.
I AM MY OWN WIFE
Presented by Wadsworth Theatre/The Geffen Playhouse/Delphi Prods. in association with Playwrights Horizons
Credits:
Playwright: Doug Wright
Director: Moises Kaufman
Scenic designer: Derek McLane
Lighting designer: David Lander
Costume designer: Janice Pytel
Sound designers: Andre J. Pluess, Josh Bender Dubiel
Starring:
Jefferson Mays
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