A drama elevating self-awareness to new heights, currently in rehearsal by the Driftwood Players, is one of a pair of upcoming opportunities for Sunshine Coast residents to experience the work of Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Dorothy Dittrich.
The Dissociates, which Dittrich wrote two decades ago, will open late next month in a fully realized rendition influenced by conversations between the playwright herself and director Anthony Paré, most recently responsible for last year’s touring production of Blood Relations.
Even while Paré and his cast are in the final throes of preparation, the Off the Page program of dramatic script readings will present Dittrich’s 2017 work Two Part Invention at the Heritage Playhouse on March 9.
The Dissociates had its origins during Dittrich’s residency at the Toronto-based Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, an institution focused on cultivating queer voices and stories. The play opens with a dark jest: the protagonist, a middle-aged lesbian woman named Alex, sardonically laments her unsuccessful suicide attempt. As she navigates the ensuing existential crisis, shards of her personality (played by other actors) manifest in the grounds of her household garden, proffering perspective, admonishment, and excessively emotional empathy.
From Dittrich’s perspective, today’s political landscape and the stature of queer community have radically changed since the period of the play’s debut 20 years ago. (Reflecting that passage of time, the Driftwood production updated Alex’s age to provide a more mature perspective.) But the turbulent state of politics isn’t the point.
“I didn’t write it for any particular climate, current or otherwise,” Dittrich said from her home on Vancouver Island. “What was foremost in my mind is that [Alex] is suffering from a very human condition, which is isolation, loneliness and depression. The other slice of the piece is: this is a lesbian woman living in a culture that people do not know about.”
Audiences make a mistake to think that lesbian culture is simply about same-sex attraction, explained Dittrich. The Dissociates abounds with references to a corpus of films, music and social rituals that are underrepresented in works of mainstream drama. Despite the apparent richness of Alex’s life, “her depression and isolation come from her cutting bits and pieces off that life in order to fit into a more mainstream existence,” Dittrich said, describing how her character abides in the “lesbian ghetto” familiar to those of a certain age who lived through a particular era. Acknowledging and preserving knowledge of that culture is part of the play’s vital mission.
Dittrich’s deft dialogue and unflinching willingness to explore another universal pain point — grief — earned her the Governor General’s Award in 2022 for her play The Piano Teacher. The Chemainus Theatre Festival most recently staged a version last year.
Music and gardens are fecund fields for Dittrich — although she raises only tomatoes in a windowsill planter, she comes from a family of enthusiastic gardeners. She is also an acclaimed composer and sound designer. Music is integral to the plot of Two Part Invention, in which a married couple struggles to resolve a discordant relationship by having an “impossible conversation” that broaches infidelity and forgiveness.
J.S. Bach’s contrapuntal masterpieces inspired Dittrich’s approach: “In Bach there’s dissonance and there’s harmony and there’s a relationship you can control,” she observed. “Whereas between people you can’t control dissonances and harmony in that way. Maybe that’s why we have art. And a relationship itself is its own form of art.”
Tickets are on sale now for the eight-show Driftwood Players run of The Dissociates, which opens with a preview performance on March 27 (see driftwoodplayers.ca for outlets and online sales). Two Part Invention appears at Off the Page at 1 p.m. on March 9, with admission to the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons by donation ($10-20 is suggested).
