I Am My Own Wife, by Douglas Wright


I Am My Own Wife by Douglas Wright wins the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama



Pulitzer Prize Winner Doug Wright

photo by Aubrey Reuben

Doug Wright won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Dram for his play I Am My Own Wife. I wrote about the review when it opened here.

The Times coverage:

DRAMA: 'I Am My Own Wife' by Doug Wright
"I Am My Own Wife" is based on the life of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (née Lothar Berfelde), a soft-spoken but tenaciously gender-bending biological male who died in 2002 at 74. Her lifelong obsession -- Mahlsdorf preferred to be thought of as female -- was the preservation of furniture and household relics, mostly from the 1890's. The play largely follows Charlotte as she endured the cruel repressions of the Nazis and the Communists, and her harrowing tales of survival through the eras of the Gestapo and the Stasi, the East German secret police, are nothing short of breathtaking.
• Review: 'I Am My Own Wife' (Sept. 21, 2002)
• Show Details
• Putting a Guy Into a Frock Takes Teamwork (Dec. 17, 2003)

Terry Teachout raved over it here :

Everything about "I Am My Own Wife" is outstanding, from Moisés Kaufman’s limpid direction to the deceptively simple stage design of Derek McLane. But the real hero of the evening is Mr. Wright, who hides nothing from the audience, not even his still-powerful longing to idealize Charlotte. "I need to believe in her stories as much as she does," he admits—yet he pays us the supreme compliment of letting us make up our own minds about this complex creature, instead of telling us what progressive minds ought to think.

I have not seen this play or even read it yet - but it's on my list.

Posted: Wed - April 7, 2004 at 02:20 PM          

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