Angry Inches, Happy Itches, Aber Wer Bin Ich?

 

wer bin ich, wer ist "ich"? (who am i, who is "i"?)

Was I born in Germany, from an East-German mother living in the West who, when the Wall was erected in 1961, got the weirdest idea to throw me into a wheelbarrow before heading back East? Or was I born from the moment John Cameron Mitchell, a multi-talented artist from New York City, first put on a wig on his head and pretended to be me? But maybe my character originated on the day he and Stephen Trask, one of his musician friends also very talented, advanced the possibility of me - the possibility of creating what was to become a pretty successful off-Broadway show? Do I come to life within all these actors who, all around the world now, play Hedwig on stage? How much of me do you see on cinema and TV screens when my film is played? Is this me in your eyes, in your heads, on your heads, you Hed-heads?

You followed me on my US tour, I now invite you on a tour of my mind. These pages are a reflection of - and on - my geographic and psychic travels.

My story is about gender and sexual difference, but it is also much more than that. It is the story of a character who, in a never-ending struggle with binaries, strives to make sense of the singularity of her experience, of the singularity of her self. Is this an angry or a happy struggle? Well, here are my insights, and I leave it up to you to decide.