Theatre Review: The Curious incident of the Dog in the night-time

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I recently saw the play ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ (hopefully I got the name right!) and I am still trying to figure out my views on it. We went in thinking it would be a light hearted mystery play and it was anything but that. The option we had passed on was ‘The Book of Mormons’ and I think that also had a part to play in the fact that I wasn’t impressed:).

The play starts with the murder of a dog, and the neighbour autistic boy Christopher gets involved in it. The play is then onwards about Christopher - a teenager staying with his father and whose mother is dead. He is shown as a relatively intelligent boy, but with his own social problems. He is obsessed with finding the truth about the dog, and on the way, he uncovers secrets about his own family - about his father and his mother. But more than that, this journey helps him discover himself, his strengths and what all he is capable of.

I generally don’t like movies and plays which are about rediscovering one's family ties or the ones about finding family skeletons and dealing with them. And so I didn’t enjoy this one either. But when I think about the play now, I think it was more about Christopher discovering himself and his hidden strengths, than just his family skeletons. And that was definitely more enjoyable.

While trying to solve the mystery of the dog, Christopher manages to get over his fear of other people; he even goes off to interact and investigate strangers. He is able to think for himself and do things his father forbid him to. And when he goes in search of his mother, he uses his mind to figure out things he had never been exposed to before: finding a train station, taking a train to London, outwitting the police, talking to people for directions, discovering the tube, figuring out a map and so on. And the way all this happens in the background while the story moves ahead is something you realise only when you are out of the theatre.

The acting was good, especially Christopher, his father, his old neighbour and the teacher. The mother felt a bit lacking emotion though. Also the stage setting was innovative: there were 3 walls which were used to portray the various locations in the play. There way the rest of the cast was brought in and out of the play was also interesting to see. Overall the play was good - but then again I wasn’t impressed. I think the whole stage setting was too distracting for me and took away a lot of attention from the story to what was happening on stage and figuring out what it meant!

When I read the reviews, they have been very positive. I think there was a lot more deeper in the play which I haven't understood yet;-). Anyways would go for 3 stars for this one - wasn’t an unmissable one for me.


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