Dancock's Dance

by Guy Vanderhaeghe

Shell-shocked, judged unfit for society and haunted by the sins of war, Lieutenant John Carlyle Dancock finds himself committed to an insane asylum where he cannot escape the confines of righteous authority or his own conscience, which visits him in the ghostly apparition of a soldier he once tormented.

Dancock’s Dance is an emotionally haunting play in which one broken man clings breathlessly to a hope for redemption. Vanderhaeghe’s stark, vivid portrayal of internal and worldly chaos rings with hope and shimmers in the craft of his language.

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 1996

About the author

Guy Clarence Vanderhaeghe, OC, SOM is a Canadian fiction author.

Vanderhaeghe received his Bachelor of Arts degree with great distinction in 1971, High Honours in History in 1972 and Master of Arts in History in 1975, all from the University of Saskatchewan. In 1978 he received his Bachelor of Education with great distinction from the University of Regina. In 1973 he was Research Officer, Institute for Northern Studies, University of Saskatchewan and, from 1974 until 1977, he worked as Archival and Library Assistant at the university. From 1975 to 1977 he was a freelance writer and editor and in 1978 and 1979 taught English and history at Herbert High School in Herbert, Saskatchewan. In 1983 and 1984 he was Writer-in-Residence with the Saskatoon Public Library and in 1985 Writer-in-Residence at the University of Ottawa. He has been a Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Ottawa (1985-86), faculty member of the Writing Program of the Banff Centre for the Arts (1990-91), faculty member in charge of senior fiction students in the SAGE Hills Creative Writing Program (1992). Since 1993 he has served as a visiting professor of English at St. Thomas More College at the University of Saskatchewan.

Vanderhaeghe lives with his wife in Saskatoon.

Vanderhaeghe's first book, Man Descending: selected stories (1982), was winner of a Governor General's Award and the United Kingdom's Faber Prize. A novel, The Englishman's Boy (1996), won him a second Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Saskatchewan Book Award for Fiction and for Best Book of the Year, and it was shortlisted for both the Giller Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

He is perhaps best-known for The Last Crossing (2001), a national bestseller and winner of the Saskatoon Book Award, the Saskatchewan Book Awards for Fiction and for Book of the Year, and the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year. The novel was selected for the 2004 edition of Canada Reads as the book that should be read by all Canadians.

In 2003, Vanderhaeghe was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Reviews

[John Vanderslice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a weird but compelling play, one that demonstrates the psychologically damaging effects that serving as a lieutenant for a Canadian battalion in World War One had for one young soldier. The lieutenant has been committed to a mental hospital where he runs afoul of the director and a surly, sadistically abusive employee. He is also haunted by the memory of how he treated one shell-shocked member of his battalion, the shadowy figure of whom, a character in the play, acts as both a ghost and a symbolic representation of the young lieutenant's PTSD. Oh, and he's in love with another patient, a disturbed young woman who is afraid she will spontaneously combust. And, on top of all that, since it's 1919, the Spanish Flu epidemic has broken out and eventually reaches the hospital. It all makes for a swirling topsy-turvy series of events and characters where up is down, the crazy are sane, medical professionals don't heal anyone, the one who should be your enemy is your friend and the one who should be your friend is an enemy. Compelling stuff. It's a good read. I wasn't entirely sold on the ending, but I didn't reject it either.

[Joti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS SO FUCKING MUCH I HAVE TO SEE THIS PERFORMED ONE DAY 😍😍😍