I Am My Own Wife Closes on Broadway Oct. 31; Jeff Mays Packs His Bags for National Tour
By Kenneth Jones
29 Oct 2004
I Am My Own Wife, Doug Wright's fact-inspired, one-actor play about a gentle but resilient German transvestite, ends its Broadway run Oct. 31 after capturing the imaginations of regional, Off-Broadway and Broadway audiences — to say nothing of the Pulitzer Prize committee and Tony Award voters.
The play ("portrait of an enigma," Wright called it) stars Jefferson Mays as not just Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (born Lothar Berfelde) but dozens of other characters, including a character based on Doug Wright himself. The work is as much a character study of Charlotte as it is a document of a playwright's creative quest. The multiple points of view and vibrant theatricality undoubtedly led its 2004 Tony Award for Best Play and 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The Tony and Pulitzer wins represented the first time a solo work won those awards.
Jefferson Mays received the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in Play.
The Moisés Kaufman-directed production began its New York life at Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons in spring-summer 2003. Produced by Delphi Productions, it transferred to Broadway, opening Dec. 3, 2003.
By the Oct. 31 close, it will have played 26 previews and 361 performances.
It could not be determined at press time if the Broadway production had recouped its investment.
Wright has acknowledged the importance of regional and resident-theatre development of the play. Over the years, the script was heard at Sundance Theater Institute, La Jolla Playhouse, Wilma Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop and (just prior to Playwrights Horizons) About Face Theatre Company in Chicago.
Mays will star in the play's national tour, which begins at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in January 2005, followed by stops at San Francisco's Curran Theatre in May 2005 and Los Angeles' Wadsworth Theatre of the Geffen Playhouse in June 2005.
The script is published by Faber and Faber, Inc., and has this subtitle on the first page: "Studies for a Play About the Life of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf."
To view Playbill On-Line's Brief Encounter Q&A with playwright Doug Wright, conducted just after he learned of his Pulitzer win, Click Here.
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I Am My Own Wife, is a portrait of a steely and charming German transvestite who survived the Nazis and the communists. The unique I Am My Own Wife defies easy categorization — is it a play? a character study? a theatrical investigation? Playwright Wright even includes himself as a character (played by Mays in what observers say is a good vocal impersonation of the author), trying to unravel the mystery of the gentle Charlotte von Mahlsdorf.
Donning black cap and a black — almost austerely religious — tunic-skirt, Mays performs more than 40 international characters involved in the world of the delicate and unflamboyant Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who died before the play could see the light of day. She was aware of the writing of the project, however.
The Wright character finds himself increasingly frustrated that Charlotte cannot be easily dramatized or defined. Was she a gentle aesthete and German gay culture doyenne and hostess, or did she collaborate with the communist secret police? Or was she all of the above?
For the Broadway engagement, the balcony of the Lyceum was been blocked off to create a more intimate atmosphere (seating 704).
There were are slight scenic modifications in the move from Playwrights to the Lyceum: Along the back wall, which shows a museum-like collection of furniture and gramophones, there are more pieces because the wall is higher. The downstage is now raked.
Designers are Derek McLane (scenic), Janice Pytel (costume), David Lander (lighting) and Andre J. Pluess and Ben Sussman (sound).
Act One is billed as Phonographs, Act Two is Clocks.
Tickets are on sale via Telecharge at (212) 239-6200. The Lyceum is at 149 W. 45th Street.
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Wright explains in a Playbill program note, "I Am My Own Wife draws upon several sources: transcribed interviews I conducted with its subject, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, from our initial meeting in August of 1992 until January 1993; letters we exchanged until her death in 2002; newspaper accounts of her life in the public record; her Stasi file, and my own personal, sometimes selective remembrances of our encounters. I have taken the customary liberties of the dramatist: editing for clarity, condensing several pivotal characters into one utilitarian one, and imagining some scenes I only heard recounted, while inventing others for narrative clarity."
In an earlier note in the Off-Broadway Playbill, he wrote, "While I hope the text does justice to the fundamental truths of Charlotte's singular life and essential character, it is not a definitive biography. It is, rather, a subjective, theatrical portrait."
The project is alluring to producers for a number of reasons: Because of the names involved, including Quills playwright Wright and Laramie Project creator Kaufman; the rave reviews; and the affordable cast size. At the center of it all is an indelible character and a unique way of telling her story.
I Am My Own Wife opened at PH's mainstage on West 42nd Street May 27, 2003, after previews from May 2. It extended twice, closing Aug. 3.
Marc Salem's Mind Games on Broadway will continue at the Lyceum on Monday nights at 8 PM indefinitely beyond the closing of I Am My Own Wife. Beginning Tuesday Nov. 9, Salem will add Tuesdays at 8 PM to his schedule.
For more information, visit www.delphibroadway.com.
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