Let me just start this off with the obvious drawback of the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime viewing experience: we arrived really late. I don’t know if we really missed all that much in reality, but the show felt short without having experienced t from the beginning. Also, when you miss a show like this one where the stage set up is a little unexpected, it takes a little bit to figure out what’s going on. Once I got it though, I liked it. I thought the set design was ingenious. I really enjoyed the book and the play when reading them, and though I had some ideas of how I’d stage it, there weren’t any that I was overly in love with. I struggled with imagining a way to show how Christopher thought that didn’t seem overly contrived. I think the creators of this show did that very well. They put his brain on stage and it was beautiful.
I was a little concerned when I first sat down. Why were the other actors just sitting there? Why was there no actual set? Why was there this massive grid on the floor? The grid became clear after a few minutes (I thought it really emphasized the way Christopher thought of things mathematically and clearcut with defined lines. It made me imagine him seeing life like that,) but the sparse amount of props and the ‘benched’ actors took me awhile to appreciate. I think the use of lighting in the boxes and the hidden functions (i.e. suitcase handle) was clever. The show covers a lot of ground, physically and mentally. Using few multi-functional pieces was helpful in terms of practicality, as well as creating this illusion if different spaces. The lighting and sound were well done, as well. From what I understand, light and sound is heightened for autistic people. The train station scene worked well to show what was going inside of Christopher’s head. The loud noise made you want to cover your ears and the flashing lights hurt your eyes. It was like being assaulted and making the audience see the situation from that point of view really helped the story be seen through Christopher’s.
Most of my problems with the show aren’t necessarily just about the show.They might, in fact, only concern that performance, but I just don’t know. The way the performance was delivered made me a little uncomfortable. I thought it was too funny and no amount of cool tech could distract me from the laughs erupting from Christopher acting like Christopher. It’s like no one knew what the show was about. It is about telling the story from the point of view of an autistic person and the representations of how and what he thinks and the actions performed by the man playing Christopher were meant to reflect that fact. But people kept laughing. I don’t think it was meant to be malicious, but that kind of just made it worse. Christopher became a kid who was acting out a schtick. He was a goofball that had a penchant for one liners; he was an entitled brat who threw his books on the ground and made his parents undress him. But he isn’t that-he isn’t that at all. I was really disappointed in the audience for acting as if it was when they knew he was playing an autistic child and I place a little of that blame on the actors themselves who I think were playing it up for the audience. The script I feel also had one too many funny moments. Maybe they were meant to lighten the what was supposed to be serious rest of the show, but with all of this other laughter, the teacher and her single lines and Mr. Shears’ over-acting and goofiness was too much and unappreciated.
To leave my review on a relatively high note, there were some moments I did like. My favorite moment was when Christopher was opening his mother’s letters. I liked how Siobhan and the mother’s voice intermingled. Giving Siobhan a larger narrative role was smart for stage adaptation and in the play she became Christopher’s translated voice. It was his voice through someone we could understand. She articulated the thoughts that ran through Christopher’s head because, as we know, Christopher can’t always do that. So she read aloud what Christopher couldn’t. She became the voice in his head because she was the person he trusted and felt knew him- the only one now that he felt he couldn’t trust his parents. I think this whole scene was done very well. All this is going on in his head and Christopher is just building his train, rushing to put something together until the lights come up and he’s done for the count, utterly exhausted.
The play had its moments. The point of view changes were well done and the tech work ingenious. The acting and delivery was, at times, a little insensitive, but the play was good nonetheless. I wish I could see it again because I have a feeling that it wasn’t meant to be exactly like that. Maybe another time, I could also see that beginning.
Side Note- I was going to end the post here, but I just can’t go without getting made about the whole puppy thing. I was super disappointed in the people I was sitting with during that final scene. I mean, grow up, it’s a dog. In love puppies as much as the next person, but your cooing is completely undermining the utterly awful thing that Christopher’s father is doing in that moment. He murdered a dog, lied about Christopher’s mother being dead, and is not buying back his affection. He’s not a good guy and that puppy was not cute enough to just absolve him of that.
Side-side note- Again, sorry, but all that talk of how well trained that puppy is is nonsense. He ran toward the kid, who probably had treats, and then was held using a leash. It wasn’t a great feat of animal training; it was a puppy being a puppy, so just stop with all of the ‘ohh, look at the puppy’ nonsense.
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