The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

The story here began life in a best-selling novel by Mark Haddon in 2003 and was turned into a play in 2013 by Simon Stephens. It concerns a 15-year old schoolboy, Christopher John Francis Boone, a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties. Finding a neighbour’s dog with its torso pierced by a garden fork, he is determined to seek the culprit. He’s different, a bit of an outsider, who sees the world in a different way but  still finds it necessary to see justice done. Despite having a brilliant and extraordinary brain, he’s never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, distrusts strangers, dislikes being touched and the colour yellow, even when that means turning down an offer of a piece of battenberg cake.   

The part of Christopher in this play is substantial and challenging but David Bunting made a superb job of it. He completely inhabited the role with mannerisms absolutely typical of such a character, whether it was facial expressions or the need to fiddle with something or other, such as the ties on his jacket (red, not yellow, of course).  Occasional meltdowns were also well played and the style in which he delivered his lines was entirely convincing. A memorable performance.       

Kevin Donnelly as his father, Edward, captured perfectly the frustrations of being a parent not only of a teenager but one with Christopher’s unique attributes.  The way in which you can come to blows even with a loved one and then, minutes later, you regret your actions and apologise.  It turns out that, besides being the dog murderer, he has lied to his son about the death of his mother when what she has really done is to leave their Swindon home to be with her lover in Willesden, North London. The lover, by the way, is the estranged husband of the bereaved dog owner.  Having completely lost faith in his father and despite his lack of experience of travel, Christopher sets off for London to be with his mother and his adventures on the way provide much amusement.  The noise of the metropolis with its advertisements for anything and everything came across in a particularly amusing scene. 

Jemma Bunting gave a good performance as Judy, the mother, protecting her son from the dangers of life in London, especially as the new man in her life had little sympathy with the idea of having another mouth to feed.  So it is that mother and son return to Swindon where Christopher had arranged to take his maths A-level, having been encouraged to do so by Siobhan, a teacher at his school.  This is an interesting part, at times mentor, at others something of a narrator or a go-between with the audience but Lisa Morton had a confident, relaxed style so that the support she provided seemed a natural part of her character’s personality.  

The cast was completed by four others (Emma Knill, Katie Pickering, Sarah Chisem and Vanessa Adams) described as “multiple characters” and, indeed, they were: policemen, neighbours, a rather stroppy headmistress to name just a few.  Seated as they were on stage for most of the show, all in black, this rather simplistic approach worked well for this play and the four of them were able to join in with appropriate gestures from time to time. On one occasion they made a good job of replicating the sound of rain. Finally, “Willow” made her stage debut as the dog purchased for Christopher following the death of his pet rat, Toby. Much of the performance was accompanied by background music played by a brass band and there was a treat at the end as members of the Knaresborough Silver Band marched through the auditorium for the curtain calls.  Even that was not the end as Christopher described how he solved one of the questions in his A-level paper and, even though he provided diagrams to help us, this particular member of the audience, reminded of his struggle with what was then called O-level maths, was completely lost. 

It’s interesting that Christopher’s condition is never given a label whereas today, some 20 odd years after the book was written, numbers of those considering themselves to be neurodivergent and seeking a diagnosis of autism or ADHD have increased dramatically. Exponentially, even. I have even seen a report indicating that they now outnumber those who do not, which, presumably, indicates that any previous stigma attached to such a condition has gone.  Although the writers of the book and play did not set out to increase awareness, between them they probably have done so which is no bad thing.  This production has also played its part and thanks go to the cast, crew and director for their contribution.          

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