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Theatre Review by Christina Manolescu</MARQUEE>


I AM MY OWN WIFE

A play by Doug Wright,

Pulitzer Award, Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics’ Circle Award
Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts


Beginning at the end—why not?—there are no less than three curtain calls, an enthusiastic ovation from a cheering, hooting crowd. The stage curtain falls on an old-fashioned horned gramophone, a haunting captured voice, scratchy with age. This is a slice of life from Berlin, Germany before, during and after the cataclysm of World War II.

Inside the crumbling old stone house, there is Kaffee and Kuchen: cherry-filled, cream-slathered German Black Forest Torte. Heavy emphasis on the black: black humour, black deeds, the stuff of legend layered over with truth and invention. Rather like the sober black garments and pearls masking the covert gender of Lothar/Charlotte von Mahlsdorf; at any rate, the official gender with which Nature has fashioned him/her.

From his youth, Lothar—reluctant hero of this theatre piece—reveals a disturbing femininity that would insist on being ‘outed’ even in the face of Nazi oppression and, later, Soviet occupation. Encouraged by some, thwarted by others, Lothar’s alter ego, Charlotte, somehow manages to defy the odds, with her long blonde hair and flying skirts, squeaking past the loaded barrel of a Nazi pistol, wreaking final vengeance on her father in an act of near Biblical resonance.

It is playwright, Doug Wright, during the final years of the twentieth century in Berlin who dis-covers, then proceeds to unveil this same Charlotte, now an unlikely survivor, aging transvestite and relic of history surrounded by hoards of salvaged Weimar artifacts in her own Gründerzeit Museum

Since then Wright has refashioned and restored her as his own personal icon for all the world to see. Growing up gay in the American Bible belt, as he says, I think I have some idea of what she went through.

But does he?

With fluid virtuosity and ventriloquist flair, actor Brett Christopher gives voice to over three dozen characters that pour through Charlotte’s memory as she reconstructs, with twenty/twenty hindsight, herself, her life, ‘herstory.’ It is a didactic, even hypnotic recital of events, mingled with bawdy irony and moments of quavering self-defense.

Christopher’s agile command of German, and also comic Teutonic idiosyncrasies, is fascinating. He rises to, and often supersedes the challenge. The result is a strictly focused ‘mediatic’ control, Charlotte’s stranglehold over the unfolding drama. Yet this drama carries its own ambivalence. After all, who is really telling whose story?

Engulfed, at times, by an overpowering stage darkness, the tense musicality of danger, after a lifetime of self-defense, Charlotte is giving nothing away. Nothing incriminating, that is, about her decades spent under the suffocating STASI terror.

To her retrospective accusers, and there are many, she responds in prim silence, a touch of hauteur, or simply: Ya, nein, ya, es war so, und so! To her obsessed admirer and willing advocate, Wright, she graciously imparts her legend in precious bits and pieces: an act of personal ‘Re-creationism,’ fundamentalist-style.

True, for the playwright, doubt and disillusionment follow as grim testimony from former years surfaces, and gaping fissures appear in Charlotte’s sanctified plaster cast. Murky layers of truth and, failing absolute truth, honest conjecture must be applied.

Why, then, is it all so compelling?

For better or worse, Charlotte dared to be herself (to some, her outrageous self) at a time and place in history when being yourself could easily get you killed: a gruesome reality for many citizens, day after month after year. Wright’s retrospective staging of Charlotte’s life is both the medium and the message: the endurance of originality over conformism, diversity over monoculture, preservation over extinction, voice over silence.

Theatre Review by Christina Manolescu, Invisible Cities Network


MONTREAL February 2007 –The Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre, excited by the great buzz surrounding this upcoming production, is proud to present the 2004 Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and Pulitzer-Prize winning enigmatic story, I Am My Own Wife.

Inspired by interviews conducted by the playwright over several years, I Am My Own Wife tells the fascinating true story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a German transvestite who managed to survive living openly as a cross-dresser since the age of 16. This she accomplished under the twentieth Century’s two most repressive, conformist regimes- the Third Reich and the Communists. The play is a striking solo performance portraying more than three-dozen characters, including the controversial figure herself and the American writer who became intrigued, disillusioned and impassioned by her. The playwright explains, “I’m drawn to characters who wilfully, even gleefully, thwart the status quo; outsiders who subvert or expose their surroundings in a way that’s entertaining, sly and arguably, moral.”

When the Nazis were looting Jewish homes during World War II, Charlotte followed with a junk cart, rescuing lamps, bronze busts and recordings of banned composers such as Mendelssohn and Offenbach. During the Cold War, when the Russians threatened to destroy a Weimar-era cabaret in Berlin, Charlotte rescued each table, cane-back chair and faded menu, receiving the Order of Merit for her efforts. In room after room of her homegrown museum, she kept a fractured, tumultuous country intact. But at what price? That is the heart of this gripping story.

Nationally respected director Chris Abraham is welcomed back to The Segal stage (Hedda Gabbler, The Glass Menagerie, Saltwater Moon) with great anticipation. Rising to and excited by the acting challenge is Brett Christopher, skilfully inhabiting each character. Brett’s recent credits include Antony & Cleopatra (Shakespeare in the Rough), Much Ado About Nothing (CanStage) and Family Stories: Belgrade (Actors Repertory Co.). Playwright Doug Wright has previously won an Obie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting for his play Quills.

"You must save everything and you must show it “as is”. It is a record of living." Charlotte

I Am My Own Wife is additionally a rumination on the preservation of history: Who records it and why? What drives its documentation? Is it objective truth, or the personal motive of the historian? With micro-cassettes, sepia photographs and aged diaries, the play at its core is about the process of recording.

The innovative team recreating history includes set and costume designer for ballet, opera and theatre, Yannik Larivée; city-wide, sought-after lighting designer, Luc Prairie and inspired sound designer for theatre, dance and film, Richard Feren. The assistant director is Brendan Healy and the stage manager is Merissa Tordjman.

"You’re teaching me a history I never knew I had. Thank-you." Doug

88.5 CBC Radio One proudly presents Sunday-@-the-Segal with Professor Frédéric Mégret. Sunday, March 11th, 11am. Admission is free.

Join us for another season of intimate conversation and riveting lectures as respected international law advisor, Professor Frédéric Mégret, discusses the experience of homosexuals and transvestites under Nazism, and the failure of the Genocide Convention to protect them.

!Monday Night Talkbacks presented by Pratt and Whitney Canada

As usual following the play, some of the actors and/or designers will remain on stage to take questions from the audience. Monday Night Talkbacks provides an intimate opportunity for audiences to engage up close and personal with the personalities bringing first class professional English language theatre to Montreal. Combined with lower rates for this evening, Monday night performances have become an outstanding package that true theatre buffs cannot resist.
and still photography. Please confirm by Friday, March 2.

Chris Abraham – Director
Chris’ previous credits at the Segal Theatre include the award-winning productions of The Glass Menagerie, Hedda Gabler and Salt Water Moon. Chris is the founding Artistic Director for Go Chicken Go and was the co-founder and Associate Artistic Director of Bill Glassco’s Montreal Young Company. In 1999 he was awarded the Ken MacDougall and John Hirsch awards for emerging directors. In 2002 Chris received the prestigious Elinore and Lou Siminovitch Protégé Award, for directors. In the fall of 2006 Chris was named Crow’s Theatre new Artistic Director. Chris is on the faculty of the National Theatre School of Canada, where he teaches in the directing program.

Brett Christopher
Brett is thrilled to be making his Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre debut with the story of the incredible Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Recent acting credits include: Antony & Cleopatra (Shakespeare in the Rough); Autoshow (Toronto Fringe ’06); Much Ado About Nothing (CanStage) and Family Stories: Belgrade (Actors Repertory Co.). Other notable theatre includes: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, As You Like It (Theatre by the Bay); The Gambler (Artword); Mary’s Wedding (Theatre & Co.); The Sea (ARC); Henry & Pierre, the watch for sunrise (Buddies in Bad Times) and The Importance of Being Earnest (Port Hope).

Doug Wright-Playwright
Doug Wright won an Obie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting and the Kesselring Award for Best New American Play from the National Arts Club for his play Quills. He went on to write the screenplay adaptation, making his motion picture debut. The film was named Best Picture by the National Board of Review and nominated for three Academy Awards. His screenplay was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and received the Paul Selvin Award from the Writers Guild of America. Wright's stage work has been produced at New York Theatre Workshop, Lincoln Center, WPA Theater, Geffen Playhouse, Wilma, Woolly Mammoth, McCarter Theater and La Jolla. His previous works include The Stonewater Rapture, Interrogating the Nude, Watbanaland, Buzzsaw Berkeley and Unwrap Your Candy. Doug has been published three times in The Best Short Plays series and his work has appeared in The Paris Review. He's a member of the Dramatists Guild; the Writers Guild of America, East; and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. He serves on the board of the New York Theatre Workshop.