Where It All Started
by Mohamed Algarf ~ September 26th, 2010. Filed under: UBC.Nine years ago, Meghan Gardiner wrote a ten minute script for her graduation project for her UBC acting degree.
Over the following years, it grew into a 45 minute performance where Gardiner plays ten characters. She has now performed Dissolve, her one-woman show on sexual assault, over 450 times across North America.
On a Tuesday evening, Gardiner was back in UBC to perform it as she has done almost every year since the concept was created. Twenty-eight women and eight men sauntered into the lounge in the Walter Gage Residence where the play took place.
A woman in the third row rested her head on her friend’s shoulder, her straight black hair cascaded onto her friend’s back. Near the door volunteers from Women Against Violence Against Women passed out fliers and asked people to sign up for their mailing list. They were joined by members of the UBC Sexual Assault Awareness Program, a new group formed on campus.
The play started simple.
Gardiner faced the audience and ran her fingers through her brown hair. She was wearing a plain black tank top and black pants, her feet were bare. Madonna’s Like a Virgin blasted from the speakers.
Over the following hour, Gardiner was able to switch between vastly different characters. With a lowering of her voice and a forward thrust of her pelvis she transformed into an obnoxious club bouncer. Her green eyes focused on her feet as she became a woman talking into the phone while putting nail-polish on her toes. Each character was a bystander or a contributor to the sexual assault the play revolves around.
The show’s last character was the victim, whom the audience did not meet until the end. “I feel violated and embarrassed, I feel like damaged goods,” she said. “I’m feeling all these things and I have no idea what happened.”
In the discussion following the performance, Gardiner revealed that the play was based on her personal experience when she was a student at UBC. She lost 13 hours of memory after someone slipped a drug into her drink.
Coming back to UBC annually is important to her, she said. “I guess I am sort of protective over the UBC community… I want to make sure they get the message. “I want to hit home a little harder at UBC.”
As the discussion ended, the audience crowded the information stands to find out how to be involved.
One woman went up to Gardiner and asked for a hug. Gardiner embraced her tightly, shut her eyes and smiled.
