Dissolve poster (Imperial Theatre)
The Imperial Theatre is holding a one-night show of Dissolve, a play examining the topic of drug-assisted sexual assault through the experience of a young woman’s night out and the people she meets, on Thursday, March 12th at 7:30 PM.
“We’re in a really interesting turning point in society where we’re talking about sexual assault in a different way, said Angela Campbell, Executive Director of the Imperial Theatre.
Dissolve was written by Meghan Gardiner and based on her personal experience. It is a one-woman show, directed by Renée Iaci and acted by Emmelia Gordon, who plays 16 different characters over the course of one evening out that the protagonist encounters.
The play was first performed by Gardiner at the Vancouver Fringe Festival in 2003; it had an overwhelming response and was updated in 2013 to incorporate social media into the narrative, with Gordon taking over from Gardiner. It has been performed over 130 times so far throughout Canada and the US in 50 different cities. Its production at the Imperial Theatre will be the first time it will be performed in Atlantic Canada.
Emmelia Gordon’s multitude of characters in Dissolve (Imperial Theatre)
Iaci emphasizes the play isn’t really for the victims, but for all the people who could have stepped in and done something such as, “Hey, are you OK, do you want to sit with me, are you supposed to be taking her home?”
Instead of being bystanders, “We want people to become upstanders so people that see something that’s not quite right instead of taking a picture or videotaping it and sending it out as a laugh, maybe step in and do something,” she adds.
Dissolve exposes the uncomfortable reality that often people are complicit, deliberately or not, in enabling sexual assault to happen.
Its message hit home for Campbell, who thought Dissolve was an important show to bring in and an important conversation to have in a post-MeToo culture and in the aftermath of the Bill Cosby trial.
“What astounded me more than anything was that there was a whole team of people around him that helped him facilitate these assaults,” said Campbell. “This show highlights how, as a society, we can be totally complacent as something is unfolding right in front of our eyes, just because of our social biases and how we view what’s happening in the world, and a lot of time we feel it’s not our not our place to intervene.”
“I love that this show sort of changes that thinking into we’re all able to be responsible for each other and help each other,” she said.
Iaci and Gordon note sexual assault is more talked about, “What I see from the MeToo movement is that there are now a little more action in place, in bars especially, and ability to receive help if you need it,” said Iaci.
Dissolve poster (Imperial Theatre)
“It’s amazing to talk to young people and tell them that it’s okay we talk about this and it’s gonna be awkward and it’s gonna be weird and that’s okay, because as long as we’re talking about it then we’re moving forward with what we can do and how can we get better as a society,” adds Gordon.
“We can’t ignore what’s going on; it’s only through talking about it and discussing it and finding solutions for it that we can work through this issue,” she said.
Accessibility to art is one of the Imperial Theatre’s missions and mandates and once they decided to bring Dissolve to Saint John, they wanted as many people as possible to see the show.
The theatre worked together with the Saint John Community Foundation, which provided a grant to help mount the production along with additional outreach from local community groups.
Mothers have told Campbell they are bringing their children, daughters and sons, to the performance.
“The conversation needs to be for all of us, not just about women, and for women and directed directly at women,” said Campbell.
