Review: I Am My Own Wife

I Am My Own Wife is about Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a real character from East Berlin, Germany, who lived openly as a transvestite and survived two of the most oppressive regimes in history––the Nazis and the Stasi––to become a national icon.

This one-person play, starring Ben Garrard, integrates voice samples straight out of the interviews conducted by American playwright Doug Wright (who himself, grew up gay in the Bible belt). It is one and half hours (with an interval) of chaotic script, delivered quickly and with precision, much of it in German, the rest of it with a variety of accents as she takes on the various characters that make up her complex life story.

Charlotte has salvaged furniture during the wars and has compiled these objects into her famous Grunderzeit Museum, which later became a meeting place for homosexuals. She loved music and had a collection of 15,000 gramophone records and never owned a radio or TV.

Crackly old gramophone music weaves through her story, taking us back to when she was a 16-year-old boy called Lothar and was given a book about transvestites by her lesbian aunt, who told her “this book will become your bible”.

A love of antiques and a reverence for history combine with great wisdom to unfold this person, and we realise as an audience that when we look at our heroes it’s good to consider their flaws as well as the things they got right, as that makes them only more human.

It jumps in time from 1940’s through 1970’s, the fall of the Berlin Wall and into the 1990’s, referencing specific periods in Berlin. She developed a very complicated relationship with the Stasi in order to keep the museum alive. The museum was her legacy, for which she was highly decorated by her country. I Am My Own Wife goes a long way in keeping this legacy alive. (MS)

Until Dec 5 (Tues-Sun, various times). Old Fitzroy Theatre, 129 Dowling Street (Cnr Cathedral Street), Woolloomooloo. $25-$35. Tickets & info: oldfitztheatre.com or iammyownwife.com.au 

BY MEL SOMERVILLE