A Fascinating Character and 34 More


In 2004, Doug Wright’s play "I Am My Own Wife" won acclaim, including the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics awards for best or outstanding new play, plus the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

This compelling one-person play continues to rivet audiences at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA.

The protagonist of this true story, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, was a transvestite who survived the Nazis, the Communists and the aftermath of the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Wright interviewed him several times, then wrote the play, and is included as a major character in the work.

Wright was smitten by the heroic elements in the story of Lothar Berfelde, von Mahlsdorf’s given name. As a teenager Berfelde acknowledged that he was a female in a male body, an acceptance supported by a sympathetic lesbian aunt.

This story spoke to Wright as he himself struggled with his own place as a gay man in America.

When Hitler came to power, von Mahlsdorf managed to survive. After World War II, the Stasi, the East German Communist government equivalent of the Gestapo, continued the harassment of gays.

Von Mahlsdorf, a collector of antique phonographs, furniture and other objets d’art, opened a secret bar in the basement of his home/museum. This afforded his friends and other gay men and women an opportunity to be themselves and to shed the straight trappings forced upon them. After the Wall came down, he received the Medal of Honor for his bravery and for maintaining the many artifacts that survived Nazi rule.

There is a sweetness and a kitschy quality to the character and production which minimizes the darkness that underlies von Mahlsdorf’s life. This approach leaves us unprepared for the questions that surface in the later part of the play concerning the truth of von Mahlsdorf’s story. Because the authenticity of the events is uncertain, the audience is prompted to draw its own conclusions based on the information offered. The references to gay life, anti-Semitism, and freedom of choice versus tyranny running throughout the play create a multi-layered work prompting lots of debate.

Many one-person plays are either self-indulgent or boring; "Wife," however, is compelling.

Vince Gatton plays von Mahlsdorf and 34 other characters in a major acting tour de force. Gatton and director Andrew Volkoff worked together last year in Barrington Stage Company’s "Fully Committed" in which Gatton also played multi characters. Volkoff imbues the work with seamless transitions while Gatton brings each character to life with a gesture, a facial expression and a change of vocal quality.

Theater lovers who like challenges will be drawn into a fascinating life.

 


"I Am My Own Wife" runs through June 8 at Barrington Stage Company’s Stage II in the VFW Hall, located at 36 Linden Street (one block west of North Street and two blocks north of the mainstage) in Pittsfield. For tickets, call 413-236-8888.


 

 

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