Doosan Art Center will present the play "I Am My Own Wife" from June 24 to July 12 at Space111 in Doosan Art Center in Jongno-gu, Seoul, as the final production of this year's "Doosan Humanities Theater 2026: New Taxonomy."
"I Am My Own Wife" is a representative work by American playwright Doug Wright that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. Based on the life of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a real-life figure from Germany, the work uses a monodrama format with a single actor playing 35 roles to portray the diverse memories, testimonies, and interpretations surrounding one individual in a multidimensional way.
The work begins as American playwright Doug interviews Charlotte, a unique figure from East Berlin, after German reunification. Biologically male but identifying as female, Charlotte survived through both Nazi Germany and the East German socialist regime. She collected late 19th-century furniture, gramophones, and clocks to create the "Gründerzeit" museum in her home, and preserved traces of "Mulackritze," a cabaret that had been a cultural space for sexual minorities in the past.
This production attempts a new interpretation in line with this year's Doosan Humanities Theater theme, "New Taxonomy." While the original 2013 production focused on the life of Charlotte as an exceptional figure herself, this staging shifts focus to exploring society's gaze that seeks to define and classify a person, and the limits of that gaze.
The production team views Charlotte not simply through the lens of transgender identity, but as a complex being who continuously transformed and lived through history, politics, and social environments. Audiences, too, are prompted to reflect on how incomplete their own standards and judgments are during the process of trying to understand and classify Charlotte.
The most distinctive feature of this work is the monodrama format in which a single actor takes on 35 roles. Not only Charlotte, but also playwright Doug, his friend John, and family members and surrounding figures are all played by one actor. As they follow rapidly shifting characters and perspectives, audiences experience clashing memories and testimonies rather than a single truth.
The cast also draws attention. Ji Hyun-jun, who played Charlotte in the Korean premiere in 2013 and won the Dong-A Theater Award and the Korea Theater Awards' Best New Actor, returns to the same role after 12 years. Joining him as a new Charlotte is Baek Seok-kwang, who has been actively performing in the theater scene recently. Kang Ryang-won, who directed the original Korean production, also returns to the helm, enhancing the work's completeness.
The production also focuses on expanding accessibility. Korean subtitle commentary will be provided for all performances, along with wheelchair seating, guided walking, and text communication services. Touch tours for visually impaired audiences, as well as sign language interpretation and text interpretation services for hearing-impaired audiences, will also be available.
Launched in 2013, Doosan Humanities Theater has reflected on contemporary society through various themes including "Big History," "Exception," "Conflict," "Altruist," "Food," "Fairness," "Rights," and "Region." This year, under the theme of "New Taxonomy," it has presented programs that question existing boundaries and classification systems, with "I Am My Own Wife" closing out the series.
