I Am My Own Wife

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Curious Theatre Company opened its ninth season at the Acoma Center with a three ring-compelling blockbuster.

Eric Sandvold stars in I Am My Own Wife at Curious Theatre Company. Photo by Michael Ensminger

Garnering a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, playwright Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife featuring Eric Sandvold juggling 36 different roles, directed by Christy Montour-Larson, literally took everyone’s breath away on opening night.

Attention was grabbed on three levels all at the same time.

First, the incredible story of the German gay transvestite, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf who with her cunning ways survived the German Nazis and Communist invasion. Her story alone is mind-boggling.

Second, Wright himself laying out in black and white his journey into her life with sticky vulnerabilities encountered along each step from the moment he first decided to meet Charlotte, their initial meeting, and subsequent developing relationship. As her journey and his intertwined, Wright discovered an awesome story lying between the grappled pulling that became the final play.

Third, and as compelling as the first two, Sandvold’s impeccable performance sailing through the 36 different parts with ease and spellbinding definition.

On a simple stage designed by Michael R. Duran the main focus features a double white door in the center of a bright spotlight.

During the first brief scene when Charlotte appears for the first time dressed in a simple black dress and single strand of gleaming pearls, Sandvold’s sly secretive demure smile nearly tells the entire story. It’s a smile that says I survived. It’s a smile that says I have lots of secrets. It’s a smile that says I will tell you only what I want you to know. It’s a smile that says think what you want but I am a lady. It’s a smile that said I did what I had to do. You can believe me or not. It matters little.

The first scene, the initial view of Charlotte lasted only a few seconds, and in that few seconds Sandvold told the story, at least Charlotte’s story, which could only be handled by a master of theatre.

Although Charlotte became a national German icon, many critics sneered because of the serious number of misconceptions and contradictions cropping up in her life. Although from my faint point of view, having survived what she survived, and living through what she had to live through, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf had every right to conjure up as many contradictions as she wanted. She earned the right to keep her secrets. She earned the right to explain only what she wanted to explain.

For Wright, it meant a roller coaster ride as he scrambled to make sense of everything he encountered with Charlotte as well as fit it into his perspective juggling his own sense of sexuality of who he was and why.

Wright’s connection with Charlotte took place in the 1990s. In the beginning she stood as a major bigger than life heroine in his eyes melding over the years into a human being, wearing her flaws as slyly as her secrets. Born Lothar Berfelde March 18, 1928, he discovered as a young child, he liked wearing girl’s clothes sensing a connection to old things. As a young man he helped a second-hand dealer clean out apartments that once belonged to deported Jews, sometimes keeping items for himself. Charlotte’s father, Max Berfelde by the 1920s was a member of the Nazi Party becoming a party leader in Mahlsdorf. In 1942 forcing his son to join the Hitler Youth. Violent arguments frequently erupted between father and son.

During the evacuation of 1944, his mother left the family, and father insisted young Lothar choose between him and her. In a rage, the young man struck his father killing him. Spending several weeks in a psychiatric institution in 1945, he was sentenced by a Berlin court to four years detention as an anti-social juvenile delinquent. When released he dressed in feminine clothes going by the name of Lottchen. Around town she became known as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Her collection of old things became the Grunderzeit Museum.

To suggest the vast amount of collectibles crowded into her museum Wright incorporated the idea of using miniature furniture. A brilliant concept.

Sandvold flies through the characters between Wright and Mahlsdorf, a lover in prison, guards, reporters, friends of Wright, with clean precision and distinct personalities. Never missing a beat. Never confusing the audience who he is at any given moment pulling the audience into Charlotte’s story one minute than tugging into Wright’s agonizing dilemma of making sense out of tons of transcripts from various meetings with Charlotte, incorporating his story with her’s. Born in Texas, Wright struggled with his sense of sexuality, discovering Charlotte sparked courage to face his own reality.

Bold, courageous, bordered with vulnerabilities, the result is sheer masterpiece by Wright, and particularly by Sandvold who brings it all to life in breathtaking visualization. I could only hope Wright has the opportunity to witness this production. It is difficult to imagine anyone performing a more poignant, sensitive, tender, agonizing, honest production of I Am My Own Wife than this one at Curious.

The play begins with Charlotte giving a lecture on the phonograph ending with the heart-pounding recording Wright initially made with her from his first meeting with this deeply intriguing character.

Charlotte moved eventually to Sweden for her own safety. Her first visit back to the museum became her last where she died of a heart attack April 30, 2002.

Shortly after Wright heard of her death, he received an envelope from Charlotte containing a photo of a young Lothar sitting between two lion cubs at the Berlin Zoo. Both cubs have their paws resting on the boy’s legs. Curious obtained a copy of the photo showing it in the lobby of the Acoma Center as the audience leaves.

It’s a grabber. The story is a grabber. Charlotte’s life with all of its inconsistencies is a grabber. Wright’s brilliant writing of his honest grappling is a grabber, and Sandvold just simply knocks out the entire production in an historical moment that will be difficult to beat anytime, any where, any place.

With Charles Dean Packard’s stark lighting design, Brian Freeland’s sound and projection design, and Emilee Cooper’s costume design, Curious began its ninth season with a masterpiece of art, life, and an emotional kick in the pants. This production will be strikingly remembered for a very long time.

The timing of Curious Theatre Company becomes miraculously impeccable considering the time frame in which we currently live.

Miss this production, and I guarantee you will regret it for the rest of your life because of its impact personally, its impact sociologically, geographically, politically, psychologically, and dramatically.