The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Thank you for the invitation to join you for your production of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”. Having read the book, I was interested to see how it would translate onto the stage; especially and I was not disappointed. This was a powerful play, and the directing team had obviously spent a lot of time learning and understanding autism so that they could portray Chris’ neurodiversity and struggles with the world realistically and accurately. They took the time to audition and work with autistic actors and to take advice from people who advocate for people with autism. As a result, the cast worked cohesively with an understanding of the issues that neurodiversity brings.

The director Paul very visually demonstrated the chaos and distress that noise and movement can have on a neurodiverse person and with the choreography skills of David, he had incorporated physical theatre movements into the play to simulate sensory overload. This was extraordinarily powerful. The quality of the acting from the principals was excellent, particularly the actor playing Chris who gave an impressive portrayal of the complex character. The rest of the cast played a variety of minor roles, each playing their parts with good contrasts in their characterisations both vocally and physically. Using physical theatre and voicing, they powerfully contributed to Chris’ sensory overload adding noise, movement and chaos, drawing the audience into the confusing world in which Chris lived. 

Together, the cast and directing team produced a very impactful piece of drama which played around in my head on the drive home.

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