The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (play)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Written by	Mark Haddon, adapted by Simon Stephens
Characters	Christopher John Francis Boone (15-year old maths-genius detective); Ed Boone (Father); Judy Boone (Mother); Siobhan (School mentor); Roger & Eileen Shears (Neighbours); Mrs Alexander (Neighbour); Rhodri (Father's employer); Toby (Christopher's pet rat); Wellington (Mrs Shears' dead dog)
Date premiered	2 August 2012 (2012-08-02)
Place premiered	Royal National Theatre

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a play adapted by Simon Stephens from the novel of the same name by Mark Haddon. During its premiere run, the play tied the record for winning the most Olivier Awards (seven), including Best New Play.

Characters

• Christopher John Francis Boone: The 15-year-old protagonist, who investigates the murder of Mrs. Shears' large black poodle
• Ed Boone: Christopher's father, a boiler engineer. Prior to the beginning of the story, he has been living with Christopher as a single parent for two years
• Judy Boone: Christopher's mother. Early in the book, Christopher writes that she died of a heart attack two years before the book's events
• Siobhan: Christopher's para-professional and mentor at school. She teaches him how society works and how to behave within its complex guidelines
• Mr Roger Shears: One of the neighbours who lived near the Boones, but has left his wife before the story begins
• Mrs Eileen Shears: Mr Shears's wife, who attempts to console Ed for a time after Christopher learns of his mother's death
• Mrs Alexander: An old lady, who is one of Christopher's neighbours, who offers information to help Christopher's investigation regarding his parents and Mr and Mrs Shears
• Rhodri: Ed Boone's employee
• Toby: Christopher's pet rat
• Wellington: Mrs. Shears' large black poodle, which Christopher finds dead in her garden, with a garden fork sticking out of him.

Plot

The play is about a 15-year-old amateur detective named Christopher John Francis Boone who appears to have Asperger syndrome, although the affliction is never explicitly stated in the play. The titular curious incident is the mystery surrounding the death of a neighbour's dog.

Production

Adapted by Simon Stephens and directed by Marianne Elliott, it premièred at the Royal National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre on 2 August 2012. It starred Luke Treadaway as Christopher, Nicola Walker as his mother Judy, Paul Ritter as his father Ed, Una Stubbs as Mrs. Alexander and Niamh Cusack as Siobhan. The production, which ran until late October 2012, was broadcast live to cinemas worldwide on Thursday 6 September 2012 through the National Theatre Live programme. The show transferred to the West End Apollo Theatre in March, where it is now booking until 25 October 2014, and is expected to continue as an open-ended run for the foreseeable future.

Awards and nominations

The nominations for the 2013 Laurence Olivier Awards, which recognise excellence in professional productions staged in London, were announced on 26 March 2013. The production secured the most nominations with eight, including Best New Play, Best Director (Elliott), Best Actor (Treadaway), Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and other categories including Best Set Design, Best Lighting Design, Best Sound Design and Best Choreographer. The production eventually won seven Olivier awards, thereby equalling Matilda the Musical's record win total in 2012.

Other pending award nominations include Critics' Circle Theatre Award, which were most recently awarded in January 2013, Evening Standard Award, which were most recently awarded in November 2012, and Theatrepeople.com Awards, which were most recently announced in November 2012.

West End production

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
2013	Laurence Olivier Awards	Best New Play		Won
		Best Director	Marianne Elliott	Won
		Best Actor	Luke Treadaway	Won
		Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Nicola Walker	Won
		Best Sound Design	Ian Dickinson and Adrian Sutton	Won
		Best Lighting Design	Paule Constable	Won
		Best Set Design	Bunny Christie and Finn Ross	Won
		Best Theatre Choreographer	Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett	Nominated

Critical reviews

Matt Wolf of The New York Times noted that the play's debut was well-timed in relation to the 2012 London Summer Olympics: "its triumphalist spirit tallies exactly with the mood of this summer's athletic aspirations".

Ben Brantley, the chief theater critic of The New York Times, wrote, "As directed by Marianne Elliott, working with an inspired set of designers, Christopher's maiden voyage into an alien metropolis becomes a virtuoso study in sensory overload. Those lights, noises, street signs, road maps, random words that spell themselves into being, and, oh yes, that moving staircase that materializes out of nowhere: it all keeps coming at you..." Brantley goes on to say that the "extraordinary accomplishment" of the play "is that it forces you to look at the world through Christopher's order-seeking eyes. In doing so you're likely to reconsider the dauntless battle your own mind is always waging against the onslaught of stimuli that is life. Scary, isn't it? Exhilarating too."

However, Brantley found fault with "having Siobhan (Niamh Cusack), Christopher's special education teacher, recite the story he has written, presented as a school project. Ms. Cusack does this with a gushy, artificial sense of wonder that you associate with grown-ups talking to small children... Yuck."

Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph explains Siobhan's role further: "The dramatic conceit is that Christopher's warm-hearted teacher at his special needs school, reads the book he writes about his attempts to solve the mystery of a dog that was brutally killed in a neighbour's garden, and decides to stage it as a play. That may sound cumbersome but it works superbly..."

Like others, Spencer praises Treadaway: "What makes the production even more special is Luke Treadaway's astonishing performance as the 15-year old Christopher. He is unbearably poignant in moments of distress when he kneels with his face on the ground and moans, but also movingly captures the character's courage, his brilliance at mathematics, and his startling perspectives on the world... thanks to Treadaway's pained honesty and twitchy awkwardness, as well as his moments of exultant joy, Christopher Boone feels like both a hero and a friend, though the happy ending is rightly qualified." Spencer also praised Gleason: "There are a host of excellent and often comic supporting performances, with especially fine work from Sean Gleason as the anguished father who loves his son but hurts him terribly, and Niamh Cusack as the kindly teacher."

Lyn Gardner of The Guardian wrote a rave review:

Simon Stephens' clever adaptation of Mark Haddon's bestselling novel about a teenage boy with Asperger's syndrome is like a cute dog that leaps up and wants to lick you all over. There's no point in resisting – and there's no need... The beauty of the evening is magnified by Bunny Christie's witty design, in which infinite possibilities and multiplying confusions are represented in squares and numbers... There are times when the show comes perilously close to sentimentality, but the clarity of Christopher's gaze is so unflinching that it often makes you uncomfortable, and the show is equally clear-eyed on the difficulties of parenting, messiness of life, and torment of a child who cannot bear to be touched. The novel gets you inside Christopher's head, but the stage version does more, giving Christopher's internal response to the world an external manifestation. That world is often a surreal and scary place, but oddly beautiful and bizarre, too... Leading a fine cast, Luke Treadaway is superb as Christopher, appealing and painful to watch, like the show itself.