The Mystery of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

By: Emily von Buttlar

Staff Writer

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a play based on the international best-selling novel by Mark Haddon. Director Luke Yankee and Movebring the novel to life on stage. The production has been seen by three million people worldwide and is the winner of seven 2013 Olivier Awards and five 2015 Tony Awards.

The stunning performance of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nigh-Time portrays the story of a 15-year-old boy named Christopher Boon with Asberger’s syndrome and advanced math skills. When he finds his neighbors dog dead he starts to investigate the mystery taking after Sherlock Holmes. The story unravels revealing more mysteries such as the affair his mother had with his neighbors husband and how she isn’t dead, the many letters his mom wrote to him his dad kept secret, and more.

Jack Arroues, Noah Shafer, Lindsey Stutz, and others work together paint the story out for the audience. The details of the character’s personalities help the audience see the story from Christophers point of view. The attention to detail with the props helps visualize the setting and the mood of the scene. The actors worked together to play different characters and objects that created an image in your head piece by piece.

The audience is stuck in a whirlwind of emotions with Christopher’s parents struggling to deal with Christopher and problems of their own. Mr. Boone is also struggling with his own emotional problems, and Mrs. Boone who ran away with their neighbor’s husband to London, leaving Christopher thinking she died of a heart attack. Although you come to accept and love the characters throughout the story as Christopher attempts to solve the mystery of Wellington.

The colors of the lights helped capture of mood of the scene and the images above the stage give us a setting. Claire Griswold plays the role of Christopher mind, it gives us insight on how he thinks and what he is thinking without him telling us. This lets the audience have a deeper understanding of Christopher and how he views and understands certain things. The actors attention to detail with Asperger’s syndrome provides insight of what it’s like, making us more aware of the difficulties and the advantages for the people who have it.

Although, the play had a rich plot with a little mysteries and unexpected plot twists, the characters weren’t always clearly established. For example, Claire Griswold who played the voice in Christopher’s head or his teacher Siobhan wasn’t clearly established in the beginning, i towards the climax of the play that her role was more clearly established. Also, there was a lot going on throughout the play so it was hard to keep track of who was who and how they impacted the plot or how they didn’t.

Overall, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was an emotional rollercoaster that took the audience into Christopher Boone’s life and his mysteries revealing unknown truths about his family. Mr. Booone killed Wellington, the dog, Mrs. Boone had an affair with Mr. Shears and moved to London after they fell in love, and Christopher wrote a book all in one play.