Guest Blog:The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Take Two)

I've been considering inviting a guest on my blog for a while and when Livvy came back from London having seen 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' for the second time this year, I wanted to know why she found it so compelling. She is my daughter, by the way, and a drama student, you can find her on twitter @livvy_leigh. So here (drum roll) are her thoughts...

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Theatre in its Prime

Having won seven Olivier Awards, reams of four and five-star reviews and countless other accolades, Simon Stephens’ and Marianne Elliott’s staggering stage translation of Mark Haddon’s 2003 novel ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ at the Apollo certainly lives up to and beyond the hype. In what is a very true adaptation of Haddon’s novel, the audience are introduced to the complex, comic and at times very difficult world of Christopher Boone (Luke Treadaway/Johnny Gibbon), a 15-year old boy with ‘behavioural problems’ consistent with Asperger’s syndrome. Detached from the ‘confusing’ people around him, Christopher enjoys maths, outer space and being on his own. His world revolves around logic and reasoning, and he is unable to understand jokes or metaphors. In what is a hugely enjoyable production in terms of both its creative staging and first-rate acting, the protagonist attempts to uncover the mystery of the murder of his neighbour’s dog, inadvertently embarking on a journey which in turn reveals a number of truths a lot closer to home.

The joy of this play is that we gain an insight into Christopher’s very private world; his eccentricities and the workings of his astonishing mind. Stephens overcomes the difficulties presented by the fact that the story is told entirely by Christopher using the character of Siobhan (Niamh Cusack), his teacher, as the main narrator of a book he is writing for a school project. This divorce of story-telling from the action is instrumental in creating moments of both comedy and immense tension – particularly when Christopher discovers a box of hidden letters in his father’s bedroom. This device allows Treadaway to inhabit the protagonist with an incredible and perfect intensity, as well as creating fantastically comic moments delivered by peripheral characters.

The physicality of the entire performance is awe-inspiring. Choreographed by Frantic Assembly, the ensemble performs incredibly fast-paced and demanding routines, most memorably when Christopher has to tackle a bustling Paddington and the tube. Here he is spun, held vertically as he walks across the sidewall and flipped several times by busy and expressionless London commuters. The movement devised is a perfect visual allegory for the intrusive and overwhelming sensory environment Christopher finds himself in, not only as someone on the autistic spectrum but as a young boy in an alien location too. Back home in Swindon, the most physical contact Christopher can tolerate is meeting his palm with his father’s, so the contrast in physicality between these two locations really does reinforce the assault on his senses that he suffers in London. Life is horribly messy, Christopher discovers, and the portrayal of the capital city exemplifies this.

  
Then there’s the set. Organised like a magnificent grid complete with co-ordinates, Bunny Christie’s design is a delightful manifestation of Christopher’s ordered and mathematical world. Props emerge from the floor and several cupboards are disguised in the walls of the set, contributing to a very exciting and intense routine in which Christopher builds a mammoth train-track near the end of the first act. Settings are created through the simple use of lighting and wooden boxes (as well as members of the ensemble!), and projections appear on the walls which make the performance very immersive. At one point the dimensions of the set even change - the stage’s back wall surging forwards - and this really effectively displays how unstable the world is for Christopher.

There’s no weak link in any of the cast’s performances – each role is acted with a faultless and entirely believable intensity. Sean Gleeson and Holly Aird’s performances as struggling parents Ed and Judy are fantastic and very true – they are not saint-like; they are flawed and at points just as confused about everything as Christopher. Judy’s desperation really is heart-wrenching, although her monologues are extremely lengthy. Tilly Tremayne’s comic timing as the elderly and benevolent Mrs Alexander is spot-on, especially when she informs Christopher of his mother’s affair with Mr Shears. And then there’s Luke Treadaway. It’s rare to come away from a play unable to imagine what an actor is like outside of the role they are in, but Treadaway is so entirely convincing from his unique intonation of speech and repetition of prime numbers to his constant fiddling of his hoodie-strings that he really does achieve this. He times comic moments perfectly, especially when Christopher inadvertently mimics those around him. His manic assembling of the train-tracks and the ‘episode’ which follows are remarkably powerful and breathtaking to watch. You don’t need me to tell you this, but his performance is one entirely deserving of its Olivier award.

Not to be overlooked is Johnny Gibbon’s outstanding performance as the alternate lead. He too is utterly convincing as the 15 year-old Christopher and tackles the role, which is hugely physically and emotionally demanding, like a seasoned professional despite it being his west-end debut and is thoroughly deserving of high acclaim for his performance.

This adaptation of Haddon’s break-through book is a triumph and one which should appeal to everyone – because really this play isn’t just about a boy on the autistic spectrum. Stephens’ writing and Elliott’s direction emphasise that it’s about anyone who has experienced difference and difficulty; our individual eccentricities and how we overcome the problems that life, confusing at the best of times, presents us with.

PS. Listen to Siobhan and stay after the curtain-call!

The original Olivier award-winning west-end cast have less than a week of performances left.  150 £12 tickets are available on the day from 10 am at the box office and with a full house almost every night this is your best chance of seeing them before they finish. The new run commences on 2^nd September with Mike Noble leading the promising new cast.

Pictures taken from www.curiousonstage.com by Brinkhoff/Mögenburg and Johnny Gibbon

Great Expectations: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

What is there to say about the The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time that hasn't already been said? Mark Haddon's book quickly became a best-seller when it was published in 2003, hailed as a breakthrough in writing about disability and slotting neatly into the English literature curriculum as a set text. Because it's essentially written as the innermost thoughts of Christopher, a fifteen year old boy with Asperger syndrome, it was generally considered impossible to adapt for stage and screen. Much of the reader's engagement with the narrative is derived from our ability to fill in the gaps, to understand, where Christopher cannot in his deceptively simple retelling of events, the problems and pressures faced by those who care for him.

Well, the National Theatre's adaptation proved that with imagination and stagecraft, the seemingly impossible can be achieved. Lauded by critics when it was first staged in the round at the Cottosloe, it has now transferred successfully to the larger setting of the Apollo Shaftesbury Avenue and is nominated for no less than eight Olivier awards including Luke Treadaway for Best Actor, Marianne Elliott for Best Director and the nomination for Best Play.

So my family's anticipation was already near fever pitch when we picked up our tickets for last Wednesday night's performance. We'd booked seats in the Grand Circle so I was worried about the restrictions there might be on our view and breathed a sigh of relief when we settled in the second row and could see all but the very front of the stage clearly. Only minimal leaning was required, although I'm not so sure about seats further back and would advise careful consideration if you're booking in this tier.

The staging is simple but ingenious; the floor and three walls covered with graph lines which serve as a visual introduction to the fundamental workings of Christopher's mind; his preference for logic and difficulty in understanding anything not black-and-white, like metaphors or human emotions. Christopher is writing his book as a record of his investigation into the pitchforking of his neighbour's dog Wellington and the premise for this adaptation is that Siobhan, Christopher's teacher at his special needs school, has suggested turning his book into a play.

Acted by Niamh Cusack, Siobhan provides much of the narrative in reading out extracts as Christopher's investigations uncover much more than he originally anticipated; he meets his neighbours and resolves the mystery of his mother's disappearance as well as Wellington's untimely death. And his decision to track his mother down in London leads him to embark on a hazardous train journey from his home in Swindon, challenging the limits of his ability to interpret the world. His explanation of all the detail he sees when looking out of the train window, compared with the filtered vision of most of the passengers, is a wonderfully lucid insight into the workings of his mind, the logical way in which he processes information and the reason he finds comfort and beauty in the language and certainties of mathematics.

The problem in having great expectations, is that the play has a lot to live up to before it even begins and having seen so many trailers beforehand I'd already discounted some of the brilliance of Bunny Christie's staging and Ian Dickinson's sound. Initially I have to admit to being slightly underwhelmed; Niamh Cusack was a bit too breezy for me, her voice a little strained and I was unprepared for the amount of reading she would be doing on Christopher's behalf.  We'd booked our tickets on a Wednesday specifically to see Luke Treadaway in the role and were surprised when Johnny Gibbon appeared instead; I knew one of my daughters in particular was bound to be disappointed.

Once Christopher took ownership of some of the narrative, however, it was impossible not to be drawn in. Because the play uses Christopher's voice it's very true to the book and allows the same insights into his world. Although we don't have Luke Treadaway's performance to compare with, Johnny Gibbon is wonderful as Christopher, even more so as this is his professional stage debut - he was entirely convincing and surely has a bright future ahead of him. It's much to his credit that by the end of the performance, my daughter was cheering for Johnny (a graduate of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, after all!) and not even concerned that she hadn't seen Luke.

As Christopher's story unfolds, the transformation of the set into houses, roads, trains and particularly the platform at Paddington Station is quite simply breathtaking. The movement, choreographed by physical theatre company Frantic Assembly, is also urgent and mesmerising, particularly when Christopher dreams of being an astronaut and during his personal odyssey on the train, walking on walls, with the world speeding up around him. Sean Gleeson and Holly Aird are movingly estranged and troubled as Christopher's parents, struggling to cope with the care of a vulnerable son who doesn't like to be touched and doesn't fit into the world around him. The ensemble cast switch roles seamlessly as the action swings between bleakness and hilarity, and the ending and appendix, emerging against over-whelming odds, are touching, uplifting and yet always totally believable.

See it if you can - however great your expectations, you won't be disappointed.

Pictures courtesy of The National Theatre