Renee Mannequin Photo by Ben Krantz Studio

The immersiveness comes in two forms: first, the riveting performance by Renee Mannequin, who plays a variety of roles; and second, the fact that each member of the audience is given a set of wireless headphones through which we hear not only Mannequin's voice, but also music and sound effects.

I Am My Own Wife is the story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (née Lothar Berfelde), a trans woman born in Berlin in 1928. As a boy, Lothar was discovered in women's clothes by his aunt. Rather than shaming him, the aunt (herself a butch lesbian) tells young Lothar that "Nature played a joke on us," and gives him a book on transvestism written by the famed sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld.

From this moment on, Lothar lived as Charlotte, and despite being shunned by his family–especially his Nazi father–had an enormous impact on LGBTQ life in Berlin. How Charlotte managed to survive living as an openly queer person under both the Nazis and, after WWII, the communists in East Berlin is a wonder. Charlotte was also an inveterate collector, especially furniture, clocks and gramophones, primarily from the Gründerzeit era of late 19th century Germany. When an old manor house in Berlin was threatened with destruction by the communists to make room for the Brutalist style of architecture they favored, Charlotte was able to save the home and turned it into a museum to house her collection. Salvaging a bar and furnishings (including glassware) from an old club in Berlin, the Gründerzeit Museum's basement became a gathering place for East Berlin's queer community, hidden behind its painted-out windows.

Playwright Doug Wright learned of Charlotte's existence after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when a friend of his in the foreign service alerted him to this singular personality. "She's way up your alley," he was told. Wright obtained grants to create a play based on von Mahlsdorf's life, and conducted a series of interviews with her beginning in 1993.

Mannequin plays the roles not only of Charlotte, but also Doug Wright (often miming holding a micro-cassette recorder), Doug's friend John, the foreign service agent (who is imbued with a horribly clumsy American-accented German), as well as various officials and Stasi (the East German secret police) agents. These last characters' voices are filtered in such a way as to transform them into beastly growls.

One would be hard-pressed to find a more fascinating character for a playwright to mine, for von Mahlsdorf's life was filled with intrigue, violence, passion–and more than a few secrets, which surprised not only Doug Wright, but also the German government, which awarded von Mahlsdorf the Bundesverdienstkreuzt, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, then later considered revoking it. (The reasons for which include some of the most surprising aspects of von Mahlsdorf's life, which I leave for you to discover.

Dressed in a simple black pleated skirt and blouse, with a black scarf, a double strand of pearls, and black orthopedic shoes, von Mahsldorf doesn't fit with today's prevalent image of drag queens as fabulous, glittery beings, but she is no less fierce. Renee Mannequin plays her with tremendous delicacy, despite the often raucous–and sometimes frightening–nature of von Mahlsdorf's existence. Like Charlotte, Mannequin is deeply committed to the roles she plays, gliding smoothly from one voice to the next, subtly shifting her physicality to match each.

The set, by Sam Fehr, is both simple and detailed, and beautifully lit by Ashley Munday. A model house, painted all white, which represents the Gründerzeit Museum, sits at center stage. The upstage wall is adorned with bits of furniture and other objects, also painted white. At the center is a large grandfather clock, and four chairs rest at each corner of the stage. Projections (by Sarah Phykitt) appear on the upstage wall to help establish certain historical moments–the bombing of Berlin, the fall of the Wall–and the sound effects played through the headphones help bring these moments to life in a visceral way.

I Am My Own Wife is a stunning show that draws you in, entrances you, and then pulls the rug out from under your feet, leaving you wondering whether this remarkable woman is at heart a heroine or a villain. I suggest you buy a ticket and decide for yourself.

I Am My Own Wife, a production of Oakland Theater Project, runs through April 6, 2025, at at Oakland Theater Project, 1301 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley CA. Shows are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Tickets (general admission are $20, with discounts available for students, seniors, and groups. For tickets and information, please visit OaklandTheaterProject