I AM MY OWN WIFE
I AM MY OWN WIFE, Oriel group in association with Red Line Productions at the Old Fitz, 17 November-5 December 2015. Photography by Rupert Reid - above and right: Ben Gerrard.
This one-man, two-act play by American Doug Wright is one of those that despite its deceptive lightness is remembered long after the event. And in this instance, the actor who now features in a new production has said he saw and was inspired by the first Sydney staging that starred Jefferson Mays. Nevertheless, Ben Gerrard owns the stage from the minute the lights go up in a wittily designed and beautifully directed evening of truly entertaining theatre.
Based on the true story of transvestite Charlotte van Mahlsdorf, the playwright travelled to Germany several times and interviewed him, finally – and reluctantly – writing himself in as the narrator and filling out the captivating story with characters from Charlotte’s life. And as he survived first the Nazis and then the post-war Communist regime in East Germany, be assured: the characters and the story would be unbelievable if they were not true.
As well as a unique story, Charlotte was also an unusual transvestite: he wore no make-up, dressed plainly – aside from a single string of pearls – and wore black hose and sensible shoes. And he was obsessed with particular kinds of antiques: clocks, phonographs, gramophones, pianolas, records and, hidden away in the basement, a pre-war Berlin gay bar that would otherwise have fallen to the wrecker’s ball.
His museum was quietly famous – despite the censorious attitudes of the SS and the DDR – and it’s in this imagined space and time that he comes alive in his recollections with the playwright. The staging is simple and stylised (design Caroline Comino, lighting Hugh Hamilton) and the sound (Nate Edmondson) is spare and also instrumental in creating the imagery so effortlessly conjured up for the audience.
This alchemy is also in large part down to director Shaun Rennie and the subtle performance he draws out of Ben Gerrard whose ease with the non-stop and complex script is total; whose command of the characters is mesmerising and whose gentle yet commanding persona suggests – without a doubt – how Charlotte lived and survived as successfully as she did.
I Am My Own Wife is in some ways the yang to the yin of the Old Fitz’s recent triumph Blond Poison – who is right or wrong? What must or should we do to survive and how can anyone ever, with any conscience or intelligence, judge those who do? Fascinating stuff – highly recommended.
