Beyond Unity, Rosemary Branch Theatre
Camden Fringe 2025 opens on Monday, and we’re getting very excited. During July we’ve been highlighting many of the shows coming over the four week festival, all of which you can find here. We’ll be publishing more all the way to the end of the month so do check back regularly.
As always, Camden Fringe offers up an incredible collection of ideas and themes. Alexandra Draghici‘s Beyond Unity, which will play on 16 August at Rosemary Branch Theatre (tickets here), certainly looks to be unique as it aims to give audiences a representation of Dissociative Identity Disorder. It’s certainly a subject that doesn’t get seen much on stage, so we thought we’d have a chat with Alexandra to find out a little more.
What can audiences expect from the show?
Beyond Unity is about the stories we tell, the way we tell them, and the ones we forget – and what happens when we take the time to listen.
It’s not just a show, but a journey, built like Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) itself: layered, shifting, contradictory, and whole. Beyond Unity mirrors DID not only in content, but also in the varied forms it takes, from floating art to comedy to movement to intricate soundscapes.
As DID is never one thing but all things at once, so Beyond Unity is a puzzle made of mismatched shapes that belong together, forming a picture of pure emotion and felt understanding.
Is Camden Fringe going to be the show’s first time on stage, or have you already performed elsewhere?
Beyond Unity comes to Camden Fringe after acclaimed runs at SPRINT Festival (Camden People’s Theatre) and FUSE International (FUSEBOX).
What was your inspiration behind the show?
Oscar Isaac. He’s a critical part of Beyond Unity and one of the main reasons it exists. I created the show after watching Moon Knight, where Isaac portrays a character with DID. Initially, I thought it was brilliant, but after a bit of research, I realised it was hurtful and harmful in many ways. And yet… it was still one of the best portrayals out there. But why should we care?
As it turns out, most people have either never heard of DID or only know of it from inaccurate media portrayals. I wanted to do something about it. So I created Beyond Unity, twisting those misrepresentations to show what DID really looks like, and how it actually works in everyday life, highlighting all the ways they are wrong in the most entertaining way possible! Everyone loves a know-it-all, right?
Being a fringe festival, we all know sets have to be bare minimum, how have you got around this with your set and props?
This was both the best thing for my show… and the cause of months of torment for my mental health! Originally, the art exhibition was designed to encompass huge blackboards, ‘entrapping’ the audience in the feeling of a shared personal space. But setting that up in 15 minutes? Impossible.
I panicked for weeks. Then one day I thought: “I wish my exhibition was as light and easy to move as a balloon!” and that was it. I saw it: a stage filled with floating art, attached to balloons filled with helium.
Now it feels like walking through a magical forest of poems and paintings created by artists with lived experience. It always takes hours of preparation and detailed work, but it sets up in minutes, and it’s completely unique!
How important is audience interaction to you?
Incredibly important. Beyond Unity depends on its audience, as we’re creating the ending of the show together, making it different and unique every time; each audience member is different and leaves their unique mark on an art installation, bigger than one person, one show, or one audience. An art installation that, through its audience interaction, brings us all together in a new space of creativity and healing, where lived experiences safely meet people who listen and believe.
If you had to describe your show as a colour what would it be?
I asked people with lived experience to describe dissociation as a colour. All but one said DID is “all the colours!”. One person said “red”. Since my hair is also red, I’ve adopted that as the flagship colour and now there’s even a red chair in the show! Which, come to think of it, I’m sure no one experiencing the show is as excited or emotionally charged by the meaning of a red chair as I am.
But really, every part of Beyond Unity has been carefully curated to hold all the colours at once, to reflect the vibrancy, complexity, and courage of all the people with lived experience who helped create the vivid splash of healing and entertainment that is Beyond Unity.
If you could perform this show anywhere in the world where would it be?
Whenever someone with lived experience attends the show, their feedback means the world to me, as the truest marker of whether what I’ve created is impactful, accurate, and necessary. The fact that Beyond Unity has been recognised by many as the best DID portrayal on stage fills me with an incredible gratitude and a deep sense of responsibility.
I have been invited to perform Beyond Unity at Healing Together in California — the largest DID conference in the world, organised by An Infinite Mind, an international grassroots non-profit organisation providing advocacy, education, and support for people living with dissociative disorders. I’m incredibly thankful to have the support of Jaime Pollack, the founder of An Infinite Mind, as we’re united in the mission to decrease stigma and increase accurate portrayals of dissociative identities. It would be my greatest honour to perform this show that we’ve made together, along with many others, in a space created by and for people with lived experience, a space where it truly belongs.
What is the weirdest or most unconventional prop used in your show?
Brad Pitt. He’s my first attempt at PowerPoint comedy. You may be wondering if that’s a good or a bad thing. The honest answer is it’s a thug life thing. I’m afraid the joke making sense depends on you coming to the show. Your move.
Thanks to Alexandra for such a fascinating conversation. Beyond Unity will play for one performance only at Rosemary Branch Theatre on Saturday 16 August at 2pm.
