Last weekend, I watched The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a play adapted from a novel by Mark Haddon. The play was presented by the National Theatre at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco and was the final show in SHN's 2016-2017 season. My mother had bought season tickets mainly to see Hamilton, but we also got to see The King and I, Finding Neverland, Into the Woods, and Roman Holiday. Overall, it was a great year for me in terms of theater.
Initially, I was hesitant about watching Curious Incident since I typically prefer musicals over straight plays. Music guides my emotions and makes me feel for the characters, and it makes storytelling more thrilling. Furthermore, I can listen to cast albums repeatedly to relive the story. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by the show's title and the fact that it was based solely on a novel, so I checked it out from the library and immediately got hooked.
The play revolves around a 15-year-old boy named Christopher Boone who likely has autism, although it is not explicitly stated. He struggles with social interaction, nonverbal communication, and figurative language but excels in mathematics, logic, and reasoning. However, he lacks street smarts and has difficulty functioning in the unpredictable world he inhabits. Christopher is also very particular about certain things and dislikes the colors yellow and brown, refuses to eat if different foods touch, and gauges the day based on the number of red cars he sees during his bus ride to school.
The fact that Christopher's manner of speech is very literal and straightforward made the book easy to read. He tells it like it is and points out when people around him are being confusing or unclear.
The play starts with Christopher petting a dog lying center stage with a garden fork sticking out of it. Suddenly, his neighbor Mrs. Shears appears and accuses Christopher of killing the dog, which he did not do. From that moment, Christopher sets out to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington, the dog.
One thing that struck me about the staging was its surreal and eccentric nature. While reading the book, I pictured Christopher walking down a typical suburban street on a sunny day and visiting various houses for his detective project. However, on stage, each of the three walls was an array of dots, and the outlines of the houses were projected between these dots, akin to one of those games where you connect the dots to claim as many squares as possible. Additionally, few props or sets were used, and when Christopher rang a doorbell, the neighbor opened the door pantomime-style. The funniest scene was when Christopher hid from a police officer on a train, and when people came to collect their bags, they had to reach under him to get them, and he slept soundly on top of wooden cubes representing luggage.
Reading the book gave me a fresh perspective, and seeing the story unfold on stage was exciting, even though I knew what would happen. However, some scenes were still nerve-wracking, such as when Christopher lost his pet rat and had to crawl down to the tracks to retrieve it. Despite knowing he would be okay, I got scared because the scene was suspenseful, complete with projections of the tracks on the stage floor and loud sound effects.
Overall, the show was excellent, captivating, informative, heartwarming, and heartbreaking all at once. I cried when they brought out a puppy, not just because of the puppy itself, but because of everything that led up to that moment. If you get the chance to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time before it closes, I highly recommend it. The play even included a geometry problem after the curtain call!
