I Am My Own Wife, by Doug Wright, is an amazing show. Based on 1992-93 interviews with a German transvestite who built, kept and guarded a collection of phonographs, clocks, and furniture through the Nazi and the Communist regimes, the piece is gripping, fascinating, vastly entertaining, and reaches down into the human spirit more that anything I have seen recently. In a remarkable performance, Jefferson Mays plays the woman, several Americans, other Germans, switching body postures, accents, attitudes, in a flash -- each a complete characterization transformed in the blink of an eye. Moises Kaufman has masterfully directed this splendid piece of theater.
The brilliant set by Derek McLane, aspects of which are stunningly revealed as the play progresses, with lighting by David Lander and costume design by Janice Pytel, all add up to the theatrical peak of this season so far.
