Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Kensington Swan season
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Adapted by Simon Stephens, from the novel by Mark Haddon
Auckland Theatre Company
Q Theatre
Until August 14

Auckland Theatre Company’s latest production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of the great plays about contemporary society

The curious incident which confronts us at the opening of the play is a dead dog skewered by a pitchfork. This is Wellington, Christopher’s next door neighbour’s dog.

Because 15-year-old Christopher is autistic and therefore perceived as strange, he is immediately accused of killing the dog berated by his next door neighbour and even questioned by the police.

But the dog’s death is not just the loss of a connection with a living thing – he cannot bear people touching him though animals are allowed to but also the death confounds Christopher’s need for logic and order. So he decides to investigate the incident and bring the perpetrator to justice.

His investigation takes him on a journey from his home in Swindon to London defying his father and the authorities. Along the way, he encounters the everyday world which for most teenagers would be an adventure but for Christopher is a nightmare devoid of logic and precision with its aural and visual sensory overload.

His journey is that of many teenagers in of attempting to become independent and find their role in the world. Christopher cannot be as independent and has difficulty understanding his environment and communicating with people.

As part of his investigation into the dog’s death he begins a book documenting his inquiry but, as Christopher’s investigation progresses, it comes to represent Christopher’s search for the truth about his mother and father as well as his investigation of the various notions of truth and lies.

We are able to identify with this world but also enter into the world that Christopher sees, comprehending Christopher’s dilemma. As well as inhabiting the world from his perspective, one in which he slowly comes to appreciate how he can negotiate the cusp between his reality and the outside world.

Christopher, like many autistic individuals, sees the world as orderly, hates disorder and he has  difficulty connecting emotionally with others so relies on order and logic to understand and navigate the world and often the play digresses from this main plot to give us Christopher’s thoughts or feelings on a particular subject, such as physics, astronomy and the supernatural.

Playing characters with autism spectrum disorders such as Doc Martin can be challenging as many of the behaviours can seem as comic rather than disturbing. Tim Earl playing Christopher manages to present a character who is sympathetic, comic and believable.

While the play has many themes about learning, truth and lies, growing and achieving it is also concerned with the problems faced by those with autistic is significant in terms of public and family awareness and understanding.

Christopher’s father Ed (Wesley Dowdell) gives an excellent portrayal of a man struggling to understand his son while providing a safe environment shielding him from the intrusions of the world while Hera Dunleavy as his mother Judy who has struggled and failed but now attempts to come to terms with her responsibilities.

Siobhan Marshall plays the roles of his teacher as well as his internal alter ego, which is occasionally distracting but in the end doesn’t make much difference to our understanding of what is happening and at times the conflation of the two roles gives something of an insight into the way Christopher related to people.

Victoria Abbott, Damien Avery, Peter Hayden, Mel Odedra, also Rima Te Wiata, provide a range of characters often seeming to take on the place of a Greek chorus.

John Verryt’s set is composed of a series of two dimension squares and cubes providing a metaphor for Christopher’s orderly mind while a set suspended light boxes designed by Tim Gruchy are used to convey imagery associated with order – series of numbers and images of the cosmos along with random and confusing images of the environments which he has to negotiate.

Director Sara Brodie provides a well-balanced moisture of high energy acting along with more contemplative sequences although some of the scenes such as Christopher’s journey to London intended to show his isolation and disorientation were overly long and repetitive.

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