Charlotte walks onto the stage in stiff orthopedic shoes, a black skirt uniform with a black blouse, a black kerchief and a string of pearls. Delicate Charlotte is a man.
Every part of her physical appearance is typically masculine except for the way she smiles, the tilt of her head as she sways to her records, and the way she lifts her hands when she speaks.
Here is our protagonist, a transvestite who managed to maintain her life and livelihood under the Nazis and later the communists that occupied East Germany. Perhaps this is the most impressive facet of Doug Wright's "I Am My Own Wife," the narrative of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (played by Thomas Derrah) and now at Boston Theatre Works.
Wright actually includes himself as one of the written characters. A large portion of Charlotte's speeches are directly transcribed from Wright's actual interviews with her.
However, "I Am My Own Wife" is more than a character study. A thick plot surrounds Charlotte and nearly buries her with its darkness. Charlotte's message is one of survival.
She was a 17-year-old transvestite with a supportive lesbian aunt, a Nazi father and a penchant for antique furniture. Of course her story is not without complications; she ends up spending some time in a juvenile detention center, later becomes a documented informant and purportedly turned in one of her friends. She lives a fairly solitary life by the time Wright finds her, but she covers any of her regrets with the statement that she is her own wife. She must be in order to have made it over the years.
The play is so centered on Charlotte that the cast is just one man. Derrah transforms from man to woman to Charlotte with as much grace as a man reaching over gender constructs can have. He works in all registers, separating the characters woven in and out of Charlotte's life.
Fortunately, the character that he presents with the most ease is Charlotte herself. The lighting aids the actor in these cases when Derrah has to make this transformation. It also indicates when the audience has returned to the comfort of Charlotte's museum home of antique furniture.
For Charlotte, furniture bears the accounts of people that have been all-too-forgotten by the devastation that occurred in Germany over her lifetime. The choice to present Charlotte's collection in miniatures and the Victorian-patterned set design accentuate both the attention to detail and delicacy of design with which Charlotte leads her quietly subversive life.
One must be careful when trying to qualify Charlotte's life. The playwright came into difficulty while trying to oversimplify his one-of-a-kind character due to her unique personality and overall being. She has secrets, embarrassments, sorrows and faults, even though she may try to cover them with soft mannerisms and coy smiles.
She is no martyr, but she will tell you about her love for phonographic records and grandfather clocks with the utmost sensitivity. In one scene, as she is describing a favorite dresser she has collected, she explains her reasons for never refurbishing any of the items in her museum. She's another believer in the perfection of imperfection, because that is what makes the piece remarkable.
Charlotte's story is not meant to be wrapped up tidily and left in the category of the bizarre. She struggles with love, life and morality like anyone. Her high heels just happened to be on a man's feet.
