Traditional story-telling this is not.
From the surreal opening scene in which a dog is discovered impaled by a garden fork, this theatre adaptation sucks you in and doesn’t let go until the lights go down. Fast-paced, touching and comic, we enter Christopher Boone’s world from the moment he discovers the carcass of his neighbour’s beloved pet, Wellington.
Christopher (played enthusiastically by Joshua Jenkins) is a fifteen-year-old with unspecified, self-described ‘behavioural problems’, with his own set of particular quirks (hates being touched, the colours yellow and brown, ‘doing chatting’. Loves space, being alone, and the logical certainties of maths and machines).
Christopher determines to discover Wellington’s murderer and solve the crime; a process not unlike his affinity for solving maths problems. It is this event that coincides with a big upheaval in his own family life. Events unravel that lead our troubled hero to become the Sherlock Holmes of his own turbulent story.
Struggling to make sense of the world - people, primarily - the audience finds itself sharing Christopher’s frustration when the stability he so desperately depends on seems to crumble under his feet. We are bombarded with an intense sensory experience during Christopher’s struggles, when he is unable to cope with the strange contradictions and illogical behaviour of adults in his endeavours.
It has been adapted with an imaginative, modern approach to stage production that is ever-transforming. The inventive choreography translates Christopher’s mental struggles, being physically tossed around in a sea of confusion. Chaos, in any form, is the enemy.
Jenkins’ astonishingly energetic performance, coupled with his unsettled and skittish mannerisms of a severely unsettled teenager make for fascinating viewing. His laconic responses intersperse the production with a frank humour that delights but also betray something of a reflection onto ourselves - the truth, after all, is funny. Christopher’s explanations of how he relates to people make us see that the supposedly ‘normal’ characters in the play are the real strange ones.
In spite of a slightly confusing outset, where time frames and storytellers shift periodically, it is easy to see why the Theatre Royal was packed out on its opening night. It’s a refreshing story with real charm despite its often upsetting subject matter.
It’s an important piece of art, and it works for the reason that it’s not trying to be a politically charged sermon - but it touches us in a way that is more likely to help us understand that there’s more to individuals than labels that limit our horizons, and that we don’t always have the answers.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time runs at Nottingham's Theatre Royal until Saturday 11 April 2015.
Theatre Royal Nottingham website
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