The story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf certifies the saying that truth is certainly stranger than fiction.
Having survived in East Germany as a transvestite through both the Nazi and Communist regimes, her story is a fascinating one. Add to that an involvement as a Stasi informant and you find a story that is so layered that after an hour an 10 minutes you are not sure who the real Charlotte is. Yet this play is not too short or under-written, the playwright Doug Wright even admits that he is not sure what is truth and what is fiction.
What Wright has in fact done is left the play as a series of conversations and the whole show feels more like a documentary. Yet this is not a negative thing and leaves less barriers in the audiences’ way to understanding Charlotte. With this style Wright has given the public the chance to decide what to believe.
Most intriguing of all is Wright’s decision to make I Am My Own Wife a one-man show. Helping to demonstrate the confusion of being Charlotte yet never being confusing to the audience, Kevin Loreque superbly voices and changes persona making all those characters recognisable with the simplest of moves. Yet it is with a vacant look into the distance and the high clipped voice that we know he is Charlotte.
This is a fantastic production that is perfect for the fringe and is beautifully acted, highly recommended and hard to fault.
5/5
Will Searle
