The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Tme

At times Kevin and I feel like kids who've been given permission to eat all the ice cream they want. That's certainly true of our access to theater performances during this stay. One that will stay in our memories is "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time," made possible by a gift of tickets from our son and daughter-in-law.

Having read the book (and having enjoyed it immensely), we couldn't fathom how anyone could bring the story to the stage. But the production hit the mark.

The spare set relied heavily on lights and (often thunderous) sound to bring us into the world of Christopher, an autistic teen, who is so overwhelmed with  sensory input that he cannot even bear to be touched by his parents. Despite his problems relating to people, Christopher attempts to solve the mystery of who killed his neighbor's dog and, in the process, unravels mysteries in his own family. And when he undertakes a journey to London on his own, the frightening roar of the trains and the flashing lights used in the play palpably re-create his experience. 

Because Christopher, who is a near-genius in mathematics, recites prime numbers to calm himself, the screens on stage lit up with zooming primes to illustrate his mind set. A coming-of- age tale and a hero's journey (as Joseph Campbell and my friend Kathryn would term it), "Curious Incident" offered many revelations of Christopher's view of the world that were simultaneously both humorous and poignant.

In an interview, Mark Haddon, the author of the book on which the play is based, said that he had regretted letting a journalist refer to Christopher as autistic, because he might become attached to that label. Haddon had avoided using that term in his book. Labels can limit us, he felt, and labels allow us to distance our experience from people whose experience varies from our own. I liked that Haddon presented his thought that way. It took great courage for Christopher, who found passing his A-levels in math relatively easy, to make his journey from Swindon to London, an undertaking that would not be difficult for many people. But small victories can be large victories. That's true of everyone's life, and that's something we can all celebrate.