Celebrated transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf is the subject of I Am My Own Wife, the upcoming theatrical production by Exist Stage Right. Amanda Borg speaks to director Nanette Brimmer about running this one-man-playing-one-woman show.
[attach id=251012 size="medium"]Nanette Brimmer and Alan Paris.[/attach]
What lies behind the enigmatic title of the play I Am My Own Wife?
A rather enigmatic character, that of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (1928 - 2002), born Lothar Berfelde, who was a homosexual man and a transvestite. From an early age, Charlotte lived as a woman and she is always referred to in the feminine, but she was biologically male.
However, Charlotte was far removed from the stereotypical cross-dresser. When you think of a transvestite, you think of an exaggerated, almost cartoonish affectation of the outward trappings of femininity.
When I say that Charlotte lived as a woman, I mean that she did it the way I do it. When I wake up in the morning I am a woman. I get up, dress for the day and go about my business. That is exactly what she did. She added no false accessories to her body – no wigs, prosthetics or make up (she said she didn’t need any).
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf was more of a natural woman than Dolly Parton. Except that she was a man
She preferred demure black dresses, wore heavy orthopedic shoes and always wore her pearls. Charlotte von Mahlsdorf was more of a natural woman than Dolly Parton. Except that she was a man.
The title, which is also the title of Charlotte’s autobiography, refers to a statement she claims she made to her mother when asked why she hadn’t married, “Ich bin meine eigene Frau”, which, in fact, translates to “I am my own wife”).
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf is listed among famous women in European history. What is her claim to fame?
Apart from being the most celebrated transvestite in German history, Charlotte evaded not only the pogroms of Nazi Germany, the long arm of the dreaded Stasi secret police of Eastern Bloc Berlin and, after re-unification, the rampages of the resurgent Neo-Nazi skinheads, but did so with panache and aplomb and in female attire. It is this impossibility that draws playwright Doug Wright to her story.
Furthermore, Charlotte devoted her life to collecting everyday household furnishings from the period in German history known as the Grunderzeit. She salvaged furniture and artefacts from bombed out houses and her collection eventually became the Grunderzeit Museum. This led to her being awarded Germany’s highest civilian honour for her contributions to saving not only a treasure of Grunderzeit antiques, but also the all but lost ‘queerilicious’ culture of a former, forbidden Deutschland.
Why would anyone write a play about a transvestite who ran a museum?
The play not only depicts a certain amount of 20th-century history but also sheds a light on understanding how adult sexuality can vary without hindering an individual’s productivity and ability to be a rewarding member of society. Wright frames the play as his own quest to understand Charlotte and claim an important piece of his own history as a gay man.
But this is not a story about sex or sexuality. This is a story about storytelling: “A man tells a story over and over so many times he becomes the story. In that way, he is immortal” (Big Fish). Charlotte told many stories of her life. The validity of many of them are disputed. Did she murder her father? Did she betray a fellow antiques dealer to the Communists simply to acquire his collection? Was she really able to run a gay and lesbian nightclub in her cellar during the Communist regime? Wright felt her stories should be told and wanted to bring them to the stage.
So there is an underlying message?
Charlotte explains that items in her museum must not be refurbished. They must be shown “as is”. You look at a piece of furniture and it has a scratch, you don’t ask how the scratch got there, you accept it as a part of the whole.
Wright asks the audience to accept Charlotte and her stories “as is”. I suppose you could add that the message is also that we should accept people for who they are, irrespective of their idiosyncracies, flaws or sexual orientation. Any ‘uncomfortable’ parts of this play are not the ones that address homosexuality but those that present ongoing atrocities bred of human hatred and intolerance.
How about your own fascination with this character? How were you drawn to her?
I Am My Own Wife opened in New York in 2003 and promptly won every prize available, including the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize for Drama. I was lucky enough to watch it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival some five or six years ago, so it’s been a long time coming.
I was imediately drawn to the title, and within minutes of getting to know Charlotte, I knew I wanted to stage this play with Alan Paris. As the actor morphed in and out of some 35 other characters, the fascination became an obsession.
Your caption reads ‘A one-woman show performed by a man’. Can you elaborate?
One actor, Alan Paris, protrays Charlotte, Doug Wright, and a few dozen other people – male and female. These are the people who existed in Charlotte’s life at significant moments and are, therefore, entwined in her stories.
Just as a parent would read a fairy tale to their child, adopting different voices to portray, say, a giant or a mouse, so Charlotte adopts the character on stage. This requires giving each person a distinct voice and posture and often a different accent, since there are no costume changes. He plays them all in his black dress, headscarf and pearls.
Alan is a performer who has previously proven his talent for this sort of multi-character role in Stones In His Pocket. In my direction, I made sure each character was distinct and memorable. When Alan makes a transformation, you remember whether or not you have met that character before.
Some German is spoken in this show, and Charlotte herself and many characters speak with German accents, but no one should have any trouble making their way through the bilingual maze.
Alan speaks slowly and clearly, and Wright often provides immediate translations, when the few and far between sentences in full German are uttered. Alan took on this challenge very seriously and last summer enlisted the help of Irene Christ to assist him with the proper pronunciation. Needless to say, he has not only managed to master the German accent but now revels in it.
Vault No.2 at the Valletta Waterfront – how did this space become a theatre?
With great difficulty! I loved the vault as soon as I set eyes on it, but it presented more than a few problems since it was just an empty space, and not equipped as a theatre. It didn’t even have one lightbulb, let alone lighting equipment for performances, and no seating either. But the management have been superb in helping us every step of the way.
There was also a great deal of expense involved in the transformation, but sponsors came to the rescue and provided comfortable chairs and antique furniture. Several individuals loaned us some of the more difficult props to procure, such as old gramaphones.
We have not turned the vault into a museum but the set implies that. Rather than using actual lifesize furniture, the script calls for beautifully designed, original miniatures Alan produces from a chest and presents as a guided tour of Charlotte’s museum, which remain on stage. We are lucky to be using replicas of the original Broadway production miniatures, which designer Paul Eric Pape has rented to us.
I Am My Own Wife is showing at Vault No.2 at the Valletta Waterfront on Friday, Saturday and next Sunday and on May 10-12. Performances start at 8pm. Tickets are available online or by calling 2122 3216.
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