Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

More often than not, the artwork speaks for itself.  Sometimes it’s the artist that overshadows the work.  But sometimes it’s the technique and the “canvas” that brings about awe and amazement.  This is the case with the National Theatre production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

It was hailed by critics and theatre enthusiasts as one of the most innovative new plays when it launched in 2012 in London. In 2014, the production opened on Broadway eventually earning 5 Tony Awards, including Best Play, the following year.  It’s appropriate that the production opened in London –  the story is based on a best-selling novel by British author Mark Haddon.  If you were browsing through a bookstore it’d be hard to miss the cover art.

The National Theatre’s production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is now on tour in the U.S., with performances in several major cities.  I caught the production in Dallas on opening night in the impressive Winspear Opera House, which is usually host to musicals and of course, operas.  It was odd that this play was scheduled for this stage, particularly when the equally impressive Dee and Charles Wyly Theater sits across the street and is often the “go-to” venue for world class theatre productions.  As technologically advanced as the facilities are at the Wyly Theater, after experiencing the The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Winspear, I understand why a grander and more “traditional” stage was required.  More on this later.

If you haven’t read the novel (and I highly recommend that you do), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time can be described as a book within a book.  The story is told through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Christopher who is inspired to create a journal, of-sorts, that chronicles his investigation into the murder of his neighbor’s dog.  Neither the novel nor the play specifically state this, but it’s clear that Christopher has an autism spectrum condition; his condition gives the reader, and the audience, a unique perspective on the story that unfolds around Christopher’s investigation.

 

Christopher lives with his widowed father who is sensitive to Christopher’s needs, but who warns Christopher to “stay out of other people’s business” when he learns of his investigation into the dog’s murder.  Enthralled with math, science and detective novels, Christopher can’t help himself. He disobeys his father and begins breaking out of his comfort zone in order to discover the identity of the killer.  However, a mystery that hits closer to home is eventually uncovered and it’s this discovery that suddenly turns Christopher’s world upside down.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a fascinating, enlightening and sometimes heartbreaking look into the life of someone who experiences his environment differently.  By giving the reader access to his journal, the novel allows us inside Christopher’s head and therefore we see the world through his eyes.  The stage version of the story provides the audience the same insight, but in a wholly different way.  The sights and sounds of Christopher’s world are fully realized on stage through light, sound, and movement – eventually finding a variety of ways into the audience’s senses.  This is where canvas and technique are utilized to create an invigorating theater experience.

The most immediately obvious tool utilized by The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time play is the stage.  Minimalistic and at first glance seemingly flat, the stage is primarily a large box, open on one side to the audience.  A grid pattern is lit up across the walls, ceiling and floor like giant neon sheets of scientific paper.  Moveable, white cubes line the edges of the floor and these become some of the only props and set pieces in the production.  And smack in the middle of the stage, long before the play begins, is a dead dog . . . with a garden fork stuck into.  It isn’t real of course, but up close it’s still a bit jarring as the first image the audience sees as they make their way to their seats.  For those who haven’t read the novel, the sight of the dead dog instantly tosses them in the midst of the mystery to unfold.

The linear, hard-edged design of the stage becomes a multipurpose canvas once the play begins but even in its initial set up, its layout is an ingenious nod to Christopher’s frame of mind.  His daily routine is ruled by mathematics and science; the stage is thus broken down into geometric squares like a blank piece of graphing paper ready for mathematical equations to be scribbled on.  The real magic happens once the play abruptly begins and the audience discovers that the walls, ceiling, and floor are actually large screens that are used in imaginative fashion to complement the onstage action.  The grid structure of the stage always remains, however, and set designers Bunny Christie and Finn Ross use the squares and lines to act as a conduit into Christopher’s mindset.  For him, everything runs through a pattern or a set of linear rules, and for the most part, so does the set.  When Christopher begins to break his routine, so does the set: numbers, equations, and flashes of light appear to spill out of him thanks to some fancy video and stage placement.

There is a lot of movement in this production,The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, with the bodies of ensemble cast members often used as transition pieces or as actual props (Christopher leans against one such cast member as if lying on a bed in what must have been a test of strength and endurance).  With a very little amount of props on set, actors often use movement to mimic even the most mundane action, such as taking off a coat and putting it up in a closet.  One scene, in particular, has the entire cast mimicking the passage of time in a superbly choreographed sequence that is amazing to witness.

The high tech set and the gracefully arranged cast movements choreographed by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett often combine to create some spectacular scenes where Christopher flies through outer space or walks on walls.  There are no high wires or harnesses here; instead groups of cast members pick Christopher up allowing him to soar.  Back on the ground, some beautifully nuanced cast movement pieces allow for Christopher’s emotional journey to play out like a dance number where he is lost in the sequence of moves.

In the touring production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher is played by Adam Langdon who certainly captures, with grace and respect, the idiosyncrasies of someone with an autism spectrum condition.  His boisterous British accent takes time to get accustomed to but by the end of the play the audience comes to understands more about Christopher than just the things he had says.   Where Langdon shines brightest is in the quiet moments of his performance; the moments when Christopher’s inability to take in the world’s stimuli force him to retreat within himself or when Christopher must decide how his conversations with another person must proceed.

 

Gene Gillette gives a brilliantly nuanced performance as Ed Boone, Christopher’s father, a man with a restrained temper, but an overwhelming love for his son.  In flashbacks of memory, Felicity Jones Latta plays Christopher’s mother, Judy Boone, as a feckless dreamer who also loves Christopher dearly but can’t quite grasp how to exist around him.  Shades of Christopher come through in both of their performances and a careful examination of their onstage movements will reveal clever metaphors.

Maria Elena Ramirez brings sensibility and a playful calm as Siobahn, Christopher’s school counselor and mentor.  In a departure from the novel, Siobahn acts as a narrator for the first half of the play, reading from Christopher’s journal with a little too much whimsy.  Interestingly, Siobahn also breaks the fourth wall several times throughout the play; some of these instances are jarring, but by the end of the play one pays off to hugely humorous effect.

 

The multi-sensory impact of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is the lasting effect of the production and its technical designers deserve as much top credit as the performers do.  When Christopher leaves the confines of his home and boards a London-bound train, he is bombarded with foreign sights and sounds – and so is the audience.  Words zoom across the walls, bright lights flash, and screeching audio blares out into the theater hall; for a moment the audience falls into sensory overload with Christopher.  Yet, even in quieter moments, imaginative uses of light and dark create larger than life experiences with little to no props or scenery.  There is a particularly genius scene where Christopher is searching underneath a bed and through the use of light and shadow, the play succeeds in bringing the entire audience underneath the bed with him.  It’s breathtaking.

 

There is certainly much more than meets the eye with this production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and perhaps that’s because it’s a fitting metaphor for its main character. There are more depths to Christopher than his condition, just like this production surprises with many dazzling sensory experiences that remind us that modern theater, with its technological advances, can captivate like no other medium.