TRANSVESTITE'S SURVIVAL IN ADVERSITY 
                                              By V.I. Hambleton
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area theater
                                                                 Weeks starting Feb. 23, 2009
                                                                 Vol. 11, No. 69
          SAN JOSE---“I Am My Own Wife” is an arresting tale, effectively told, fearlessly performed.
            This one-man play currently at the San Jose Stage Company provides two interesting intersecting stories.  It is the account of a remarkable survivor, Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf (born Lothar Berfelde), a transvestite who had lived openly under the Nazis and then the Communists.  Doug Wright, the playwright, heard about Charlotte in 1992, and the second story is his journey to a finished play which won 2004 Pulitzer and Tony awards.
            After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989; among the stories about life behind the Iron Curtain that of Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf came to the attention of Doug Wright.  Interested, he contacted her, she agreed to see him, and he was completely captured by her story.  Over a two-year period he accumulated hundreds of pages of transcripts, easily enough source material for a play about this fascinating person.
            Born in 1928, Lothar, like all young Germans of his age, felt compelled to participate in the Hitler Youth Movement, hiding the feelings he had about his gender.  When he and his mother were evacuated from Berlin, he went to live with his Aunt  Luise.  She was a lesbian and an open cross-dresser, allowing him to show his preference for feminine garb.  She gave him a book, “The Transvestites” giving him an understanding of himself.
            As Charlotte, she became an expert in antique furniture and converted her home into a museum, the Gründerzeit, a museum which included an extensive collection of antique phonographs and records.  She lived openly as a cross-dresser under the Communist Regime that would control East Berlin after the defeat of the Nazis. Both regimes—Nazi and Communist—were violent and repressive in treatment of homosexuals, and that Charlotte could not only survive, but prosper, was astonishing.  Wright wanted to make the play her story.
            Like all citizens behind the Berlin Wall, Charlotte had a file kept by the Stasi, the East German Secret Police.  When these became available, Wright helped her obtain her file, on the condition that she allow him to read it.
            The contents shocked Wright.  Charlotte’s story was far more complex than she had said.  In order to survive, she had been deeply complicitous with the authorities.  He felt he had to put writing the play aside; if he told the whole story he would himself be an informer.  He had grown to care about Charlotte—he loved her like a Grandmother, and he felt that the play he had set out to write was no longer possible.
            Six years later in a writer’s retreat a fellow artist encouraged him to make himself part of the story, moving away from singular emphasis on Charlotte.  “I Am My Own Wife” takes us along as Wright discovers Charlotte running the museum that her house has become.  He feels awe when he first hears her story.  Only later does he learn that even heroes have dark hours and hidden truths. <> 
            This is a one-man show.  Robert Parsons plays 40 different characters:  Wright, the playwright, Nazi storm troupers, neo-Nazi thugs, Stasi supervisors, Charlotte herself, and others.  It is an awesome challenge, and Parsons is good, if somewhat uneven.  We meet him first as Charlotte in a Quaker-style black dress, a string of pearls, and a head scarf covering her hair.  Parsons is strong and convincing in this role—body language, voice quality, and especially facial expressions are persuasive.  Less compelling are the detours into the playwright’s creative process and clunky character switches that detract from the power of the narrative.  Rick Singleton directed the play, and Michael Walsh’s creative light design, varying both color and intensity, adds greatly to the production.
            “I Am My Own Wife” plays at San Jose Stage until March 8.  490 South First Street, San Jose 95113.  For info: (408) 283-7142 or go online.
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        © V.I. Hambleton 2009
            V.I. Hambleton is a regular theater reviewer for artssf.com.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly)focus on theater, dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into recordings by local artists, and a few departures into books (by authors of the region)as well.
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