Theatre: 'The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time'

Theatre can get you into trouble, as it really likes to know no bounds. On the whole this is a good thing, and theatre is really the only medium where full artistic expression is allowed in acted drama. Sometimes it turns into an ego trip though. The question is this: 'Where did the National Theatre Live production land in this spectrum of expression versus ego?'. This is a tough question, and perhaps is not so much about the play rather than about the original book. Ah, the book.

From the back cover:
'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's Syndrome. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour's dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down.'

The play is incredibly closely adapted, and in those terms is a brilliant production. The minimalist stage is wonderful, as are the cast and the fantastic effects on the graph paper stage. Oh, I loved the graph paper stage. It falls down on my personal bugbear issues though, which in this case are swearing and volume. The sound was really loud, and the swearing was incredibly faithful to the book, which I hated there too. It's so out of place, and yet culturally very accurate, in a book which could be a classic for all ages and all times, and that's where this play goes off the rails for me personally.

Sidebar: I've never liked swearing anywhere as it's physically upsetting and can even bring on nausea. Senseless violence is somewhat more tolerable but still a terrible waste of film and most examples of intimacy are tonally unwelcome, especially in the cinema of the 70s and 80s. Those people would break the tone just to avoid a PG rating and that frustrates me to this day. How many many movies are there which could have been perfect for everyone to watch that had their rhythm shattered just to avoid a PG? Ugh. I know I'm a prude. End of sidebar.

So, now the question becomes 'How do I separate the fact that this is a great production from the fact that it does something I hate?', and it's the same question I ask of the book, and the answer is ultimately the same. That answer is that I can't separate it entirely, but I can express how jarring the language is, and then move on and talk about the good things. I won't talk overly about the story, as I'd rather people go and read the book, but more about things specific to the production. Oh, go and read the book, it is a magnificent portrayal of what it's like to be different, and if you don't like swearing then marker those bits out or star them.

As a theatrical production, the main decision is to place the story onto an unfurnished plain square stage which audience surrounding on all sides. The stage itself is covered with a graph paper pattern which is used for visual cues and pictures throughout the play using cunningly placed super LEDs. The actors are all wonderful of course, if a little too gushy in their emotions. We can't be a little angry or upset here, we must be really really angry or upset and then morph into huge green rage monsters. In many ways the stage was more the star for me than the actors although the lead who plays Christopher is excellent in his portrayal. As with the book, the lead character is both wonderful and slightly upsetting, and I think the whole production could have been improved by being less faithful tonally to the book.

Oh, and Una Stubbs was in it! The Stubbs recurs again - watch 'Sherlock' please people, episodes 1, 3, and 4 are by far the best - and was rather good. I like Una Stubbs because she never overacts and has a heart of gold. Presumably I missed an experimental phase in the 70s and 80s which would scar me for life.

Right, where were we, ah the stage. There's one more thing about the stage that I liked which I'm going to share at the end. Well, perhaps this is the end. Throughout the first of the two acts, Christopher returns to building a model railway track around the stage, probably covering three quarters of the perimeter, and there was an obvious question of what it was building up to. Yes, the character is a little compulsive as would be normal and should be doing something, but why this model train? Why? At half time we found out, as it was there to illustrate his decision to take his journey. Fade to black, light up the train, and watch it go choo choo. As part of the National Theatre Live experience it was wonderful. I loved the train.

So ends this review of the broadcast version of 'The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time' from the National Theatre Live. I recommend that if you have a chance you should go to one of their live screening at cinemas all over the country, and even world.

From here in Wales I salute you, and I salute the Stubbs!
Oliver.