THEATRE

By Colleen O’Grady and
Chris Batting.

Dancock’s Dance is an
astonishing production, writ-
ten by award winning
Canadian playwright, Guy
Vanderhaeghe, with a setting
of the Saskatchewan
Hospital for the Insane in
North Battleford in 1918. The
main Character is Lt. John

opTHWesr Da

SH

Dancock who had performed
various outrageous acts in
public to get himself commit-
ted as a result of shellshock
when in World War 1. This is
the story of three friends who
overcome their flaws and fail-
ings and help the hospital to
survive the Spanish influenza
epidemic that ensued after
World War 1. Lt. John
Dancock is played by Roger

Certified General Accountants

Association of British Columbia

Shank and does a stunning
performance of a proud man
doing battle with his past that
is literally haunting him. He is
haunted by a spirit of a danc-
ing soldier (Yanik Giroux)
who seems to be tempting
him to dance with him to
dance with him and talking to
him throughout the play. The
superintendent and his psy-
chiatrist is an equally proud

www. THINKCGA.org

man as Dancock who insists
on the proper order and posi-
tions for his staff and patients
at all times. He has noble
qualities that he wants to see
his patients recover and that
they are treated humanely, a
sentiment not often shared
during this time period. The
part was extremely well put
through by Eric Trask.
Dankock’s Friends were a
German baker named Rudy
(William Vickers) who
thought that he was the king
of the hospital and a woman
named Dorothea (played by

ennifer Lines) who thought
she would burst in to fire. If
there was one sympathetic
character it was Rudy he
was the comic relief in an
otherwise very serious play.
He was a very proud
German baker, proud of his
own German bread describ-
ing English breads as “All air
and bad smell.” |

All the patients were taken
care of by a weaselly orderly
named Mr. Kennealy
(Christopher Kelk).

'Kennealy was not a bad

man but a paranoid one
motivated by personal gain.
He was bribed by Dancock
and was abusing Rudy

_ because of his prejudice for
Germans through out the

| play.

All parts were strongly
played. There were a few
moments when a few of the

actors slipped out of charac-
_ ter but you could tell that the

actors were enjoying them-
selves and thus this energy
made you enjoy yourself.
The material was gold. The
play itself was so good that
anyone from any level of
education would enjoy it. It
was figurative in the role of
the soldier in playing the part
of death. Yet it brought
everyone in to understand
and relate to the positions of
the characters. What | real-
ly liked about the play was
that there were not really
any stock characters. Every

' character had his or her own

motivation, past, and on
some level had sympathetic
haracteristics. What was
the most interesting is that

ncock’s Dance

with the soldier you never
knew what part he played
until the end, but . other
patents could see him and
dance with him. This play is a
picture of a unique situation
of how people act and react
with personality. This play
was fabulous: the stage
design was artistically done,
and the lighting and music
were so appropriate that you
didn’t notice that they were
there. This was a good play
almost anyone with any
sense of artistic taste would
love it as | did. Four Stars.
Theater Northwest also has
standby seating for students
a 4 ticket book costs only
$20. Different people can
use the tickets, and the next
production is On Golden
Pond March 28th to April
14th.

As an addition to the
review, some insight into the
play was revealed from the
stand point of Yanik, the sol-
dier, as he relayed his per-
spective of the play. Yanik,
an actor from out east, has
his background in singing
and dancing in up-beat, light-
hearted productions. He
claimed that it is interesting to
stretch your character by
having to act in a manner that
you are not acquainted with.
Being a naturally animated
character he found it chal-
lenging to have to be somber
and sadistic for Dancock’s
Dance. His past experience
with dance made it easier for
him to work his physical dis-
play into his control over
Dancock. He expressed his
fondness for the stage and
seems not to have any plans
to move beyond it; the pres-
ence of the audience, and the
pressure of having to pro-
duce a perfect performance
every night, has a certain
appeal that he craves. For
Yanik, the thrill of the stage
and requirement to stretch
one’s character until you
become something other
than yourself is the appeal,
and such an attitude towards
acting is the reason the the-
atre still lives on, even in
Prince George.