Cast of The Dissociates. L to R: Mardel Vestad, Peter Gray, Sally Williams, Charlotte Bailey, Wanda Nowicki, Annie Rogers. In front: Susan Hogan. Photo by Michael Gurney.

The Dissociates

The Dissociates, a play by Dorothy Dittrich, takes a darkly comic look at life and death, memory and healing. It’s the story of Alex, a 60ish lesbian who finds herself dealing with the aftermath of a recent crisis. While working in her garden, following the advice of her well-meaning psychiatrist, she tries to assess and reassess her life, sometimes with heartbreaking clarity, often with gallows humour. As she works to repair her garden, six dissociated aspects of her personality join her and comment on, help, or hinder her progress. Together, Alex’s “voices” weave a rich tapestry of a life that has been fragmented and compartmentalized, a life that Alex must “re-member” to move forward. The play tells a story specific to the lesbian community and universal at the same time. The Dissociates is a play about courage, strength, and resilience.

Director’s Notes

Anthony Paré 

Fifty-six years after the Stonewall Uprising, LGBTQ+ rights are once again under attack. Diversity itself is being denied, and those already forced to the margins of society are being shut out altogether. In The Dissociates, Governor-General Award-winning playwright Dorothy Dittrich explores the experience of Alex, whose coming out as a lesbian brings her into a vibrant community of courageous and creative women, but also strains her relationship with family and marks her as “different.” Over time, she finds herself distanced from a sustaining community and struggling to make sense of a life that has diminished in meaning and experience. The play invites us to listen as her inner voices try to make sense of what happened to her, and seek to restore her resilience and joy. 

American poet Walt Whitman writes, “Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself (I am large, I contain multitudes).” In The Dissociates, Dorothy Dittrich brings to life the complexity of self in a story of memory, elation, loss, and recovery. Somehow, in the midst of these profundities, she also makes us laugh at the absurdities of life. I know I speak for the cast and crew when I say that working on this play has been a privilege. It has sparked heartfelt conversations, many laughs, and not a few tears. We hope you will share our experience. 

Anthony Paré retired from academic life (McGill/UBC) in 2019 and promptly moved to the Sunshine Coast. One of the many benefits of that decision has been involvement with the Driftwood Players, which Anthony has done by performing in Spoon River Anthology (2021) and directing The Garage Sale (2023) and Blood Relations (2024). He is deeply grateful to Dorothy Dittrich for writing The Dissociates, and to this production’s dedicated, talented cast and crew for bringing the play to life. 

Playwright’s Note 

I wrote the first draft of The Dissociates during my tenure as writer in residence at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. I had been kicking around the idea of writing a play about a lesbian of a certain age and history. It was important to me because that particular woman and her history, her community and culture have been under-represented and woefully unknown. I wanted to write about that person and her life in the world. There are so many aspects of her and her culture I tried to show, that it only made sense to split her into pieces. I wanted to bring some of Alex’s world forward, hoping that as she tells her story, we might find we’ve felt like her too, at one time or another; invisible, scared, isolated, lonely, different. They’re common feelings in the human experience and difficult ones that are easy to “cut off ”. Alex has struggled, and I wanted to give her struggle centre stage because let’s face it, we all struggle, and the struggle is interesting. I’m so grateful to Buddies in Bad Times for providing the place to write that draft and to everyone who has helped me along the way – and now I’m especially grateful to Driftwood theatre, these very talented actors and Anthony Paré for his insight and desire to bring this woman’s story to the stage. What a privilege it is to have one’s play performed. Thank you so much! 

Dorothy Dittrich is a playwright, composer, sound designer, and musical director. Her most recent play, The Piano Teacher, received the Governor General’s award for English-language drama and the Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script. Other of Dorothy’s plays include Lesser Demons, Two Part Invention, If the Moon Falls and Family Channel. Her award-winning musical When We Were Singing has been produced across Canada and the US and was revived this past season in Vancouver. She is thrilled to have her work performed by Driftwood Theatre and this very talented cast, led by Anthony Paré. 

Reviews

Self-talk takes centre stage in healing drama: The Dissociates at Heritage Playhouse.
-Michael Gurney, March 31, 2025

Performances were at Heritage Playhouse, Gibsons:  7:30 pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, March 27, 28, 29, April 3, 4, 5, and 2:00 pm matinees on Sundays, March 30 and April 6.