Theater review: Andrew Long in 'I Am My Own Wife' at Signature

[Shana A]

Theater review: Andrew Long in 'I Am My Own Wife' at Signature

By Peter Marks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 20, 2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/19/AR2010011904079.html

For two hours of alone time on a stage and the chance to play 35 characters in almost as many accents, you can imagine actors flinging themselves prostrate at the feet of casting directors. Which may partly explain why "I Am My Own Wife," the award-winning solo piece about the enigmatic East German cross-dresser Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, has been produced professionally in the region four times in the last five years.

The newest version crops up in the smaller of Signature Theatre's two spaces, the Ark, in a meticulous production directed by Alan Paul that proves again to be an actor's dream -- but also, as always, oddly resistible. This time the protean Andrew Long dons black peasant dress and pearls to become Charlotte (born Lothar Berfelde), whose exotic and controversial life behind the Iron Curtain is the fodder for Doug Wright's 2003 work -- more of a psychological study, really, than a play.