The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Reviewed by Kenneth Lyen
INTRODUCTION
After reading Mark Haddon’s book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”, I went to watch the play in London, and was totally blown away by the spectacular breathtaking performance. When the play came to Singapore in April 2018, I saw it again, and was equally awestruck by the brilliant production. I was totally sucked into its universe and I was not released until the end of the play.
The title “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” is a quotation taken from the Sherlock Holmes story “Silver Blaze”. Beside being a murder mystery, one might notice some parallels between the obsessional behavior of the protagonist Christopher Boone and Sherlock Holmes.
Although neither the book nor the play mentions autism, and indeed Mark Haddon deliberately avoided labelling Christopher as autistic, there Is no doubt in my mind, that the boy is in the autism spectrum.
THE PLOT
The play opens with a dead Golden Retriever impaled by a garden pitchfork. Christopher discovers this and he closely examines the body. A policeman sees him and implies that he killed the dog. As a result, Christopher decides to play Sherlock Holmes and to doggedly find out who actually killed the dog.
Christopher records all his findings in a journal, which his school teacher had encouraged him to write. The dog, named Wellington, belongs to his neighbor, and so he goes around interrogating his neighborhood to unravel the mystery. During this journey, you discover that Christopher is looked after by his single father, who had told him that his mother had died. The father vehemently objects to Christopher’s nosing around, and confiscates his journal. When father is at work, he discovers the hidden journal, but also stumbles upon some recent letters written by his apparently dead mother, addressed to Christopher himself. This throws him into a state of confusion.
Christopher decides to verify that his mother is indeed alive by traveling to the London address given in the letters, and at this point the plot turns into a heartwrenching family drama.
THE AUTISTIC MIND
How do you portray autism on stage? How do you enter their mind, their inner world? Christopher is depicted as an autistic savant. He is brilliant in mathematics, but he has difficulty interacting with other people, is unable to read their thoughts, unable to grasp the subtleties of language, or to realize when others are being sarcastic. He takes everything very literally and cannot understand the meaning of metaphors. He cannot bear being touched, he cannot tell lies, and has several obsessions including his love of astronomy, his pet rat, and that he can only eat yellow-colored foods. These problems frustrate and exasperate Christopher as he keeps on misinterpreting the meanings and motives of the people he encounters every day.
THE SCRIPT
The script is written from Christopher’s point of view. He is writing the mystery of the dog’s murder as a class assignment, which is being read out by his teacher and acted out by the ensemble cast. This cleverly creates a play within a play. The device opens up a window into Christopher’s innermost thoughts and we can see how he interprets or misinterprets his experiences. We see Christopher’s difficulty grappling with the emotions of adults, his hypersensitivity to sounds and lights, his bewilderment traveling on the London Underground. And as he journeys to find his mother, we too follow his odyssey of self-discovery.
THE STAGING
The stage is absolutely magical. All three walls, the stage floor, and ceiling are all maximally utilized. There are incredible number of LED pin-point light sources built into the walls and stage floor which are controlled by computer. They are arranged as perfect grids, which expresses the geometric thought processes of Christopher’s mind.
In addition, there are high quality video projectors that project a wide variety of pictures and moving images. Sometimes the animation can be disorientating, reflecting Christopher's state of mind at that moment.
Christopher uses what looks like chalk to do simple drawings on the stage floor. This allows him to express in pictures rather than in words, and the drawings light up after he finishes, enhancing their impact.
The sound is also well crafted into the show. They create the moods of urgency, fear, wonder, and bewilderment. When traveling by rail, the sounds make you feel that you are actually inside the real train.
The walls of the set are cleverly constructed to embed boxes that can be opened by the actors so they can take out hidden props.
DRAMA
There is almost never a still moment. The show keeps on moving. Christopher is carried at right angles to depict floating in his imagination.
Christopher is the centerpiece of the play, and he is intentionally awkward when relating to adults. He spends much of the first act laying out the toy train tracks and the trains right around the stage. Then at the end of the first act, the trains magically come to life and we gaze in awe.
The toy train presages Christopher’s train journey to London in the second act. Upon arrival, he tries to take the Underground train to Willesden Green. The London Underground is made terrifying by the loud noises, the smoke, and the swarm of commuters impatiently rushing about. Suddenly there is total blackout, which represents Christopher’s sensory overload.
The pacing of the support actors varies from rapid movements to slower more lyrical moments, suggesting the speeding up and slowing down of time.
CONCLUSIONS
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” is a breathtaking play with an uplifting ending. The heart of the show is about the power of parental love. This is the universal adhesive that binds Christopher with his parents. Yes, relationships with parents can sometimes be complicated. But if there is deep love, there is hope.
Kenneth Lyen
8 May 2018
