Sometimes theatre pieces draw me in, cause me to deeply connect intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually with the action of the play, and leave me spellbound. I love those evenings, and it is for those that I keep going to theatre, fingers crossed and ever eager. Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife has been lavished with so much positive press and received so much acclaim, including a Tony, a Pulitzer, and a couple of shelves full of other prestigious awards. Arizona Theatre Company has a long track record of producing amazing theatre, and Bob Sorenson is a subtle and fully committed actor. Naturally, I willingly rushed to the Tuesday evening performance through the crowds of sports fans. What this production, directed by the often amazing Samantha K. Wyer left me was mystified. What did I miss? Why was everyone else getting so much from this while I felt cold?

I appreciate Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf (Sorenson), the transvestite who survived both the Nazis and the Communists in East Berlin with her antique furniture and cross-dressing habits intact. My basic misgivings are textual, though there are some production choices that distance me, too. While the audience gave Sorenson and the show a standing ovation, I was vexed by the event, and I felt odd for not empathizing with what everyone else seemed to.

Wright’s one-man show features a gross of characters the actor is required to slip on throughout the show, including Charlotte, Wright himself, his friend Doug, and a host of Germans and Russians inside and out of the ruling parties with whom Charlotte dealt. Admittedly I have a bias against one-person shows in general, although there have been several over the past few seasons that spoke to me. This works in the context of the character, for Charlotte herself wears many faces throughout her existence, but the choice of having the playwright include himself among these feels facile, an easy way to make this material work. The drama of the piece is less about Charlotte’s life and her questionable choices than what she meant to Wright, and that just doesn’t feel particularly dramatic to me.

The actor portraying Charlotte for the most part remains dressed as Charlotte and assumes physical and vocal changes to become the others. This is right up Sorenson’s alley, for some of his greatest success (Fully Committed, Irma Vep) have asked him to do the same. Sorenson’s voices are distinctively strong and sharp, and his physicalizations are for the most part very different and appropriate for each of the many roles, but for some reason his main characters seem rooted at the wrist. Wrist actions appear quite important here, with Charlotte’s oddly angled, Wright’s agile and flopping. Other characters are expressed in varying degrees through wrist positions and usage. Wyer and Sorenson probably did not mean to settle on the wrists, but they became a weird focus for me while I watched, nearly to the detriment of the many other strong choices by Wyer and Sorenson.

Despite this being a part of ATC’s RepFest, the set is grander than you’d expect. Wyer and Scenic Designer Kris Stone’s concept is initially smart and topical. However, it grows tiresome through the dramatically stronger second act, and it plays itself out before the end. This playing out is aided by Don Darnutzer’s otherwise surprise-filled and enjoyable lighting. What can you say about Kish Finnegan’s two costume designs? They work well, and it’s nice work if you can get it.