The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

At The Stanley until October 7, 2018
Tickets from $29 at 604-687-1644 or artsclub.com

Posted September 13, 2018

Ashlie Corcoran, the newly-appointed Artistic Director of the Arts Club and director of the first production of the 2018-2019 season, makes a dazzling Arts Club debut with the multi award-winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Winner of seven Olivier Awards, five Tony Awards and seven Drama Desk Awards in 2015, Simon Stephens’ play – based on the novel of the same name by Mark Haddon – got an enthusiastic and well-deserved standing ovation on opening night.

The novel came out in 2003 and was published, unusually, in two editions – one for children and the other for adults; it won literary awards in both categories. Playwright Stephens sticks closely to the novel’s plot – ostensibly a mystery about the killing of a dog – but he frames the story as a play arising from a journal kept by fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone (Daniel Doheny).

While Haddon never explicitly says that Christopher is on the autism spectrum or has Asperger syndrome, it’s obvious that the teenager exhibits some of the usual signs: difficulty with social interaction, inability to cope with too much stimuli, violent reaction to being touched and an inordinate need for orderliness and routine. Christopher, however, is also a mathematical genius, bent on taking his A-Levels and going on to university.

As with all mysteries, it’s hard to discuss the plot without giving too much away. The action is set in Swindon, Wiltshire, in southwest England where Christopher is being raised by his rough, boiler-maker father Ed (Todd Thomson). His mother Judy (Jennifer Copping) died two years earlier and Ed is coping the best he can. It’s difficult; he loses patience with Christopher who, he says, keeps “poking his nose into other people’s business”. When Wellington, the dog belonging to neighbour Mrs. Shears (Laara Sadiq) is discovered killed with a pitchfork, Christopher begins sleuthing. In the course of looking for clues he makes discoveries, not the least of which is that he can actually manage many things – previously considered beyond his ability – on his own.

Reflecting Christopher’s impressive knowledge of the solar system, Drew Facey’s set is stellar in every sense of the word: great curving arches, like illuminated orbits, pierce several overhead ‘planets’ that flicker with tiny lights like so many fireflies. Lit by Itai Erdal with video design by Joel Grinke and Jimmz Zhang, the effect is cosmic and, like Christopher’s mind, limitless and expanding. It’s clean, it’s beautiful and it serves the play well.

Some breathtaking soaring-through-space effects as well as frenzied Underground crowd scenes are produced by the cast under the direction of movement director Kayla Dunbar.

At the centre, of course, is Doheny’s performance as Christopher and it’s brilliant: awkward, sweet, funny, strangely wise, vulnerable, frightened – he checks all the boxes. Physically, Doheny is lanky with long legs and in sequences in which Christopher is rushing through a threatening crowd, Doheny looks like a road runner: reaching out with the long legs to cover the ground. He is completely endearing in the role to the extent that when Christopher’s in deep, moaning distress you just wish you could take him in your arms and console him. But the most Christopher can manage is a fingertips-to-fingertips  briefest of touches. When he denies even that to his father, it’s a heartbreaker.

As Ed, Thomson finds the delicate balance between eliciting our anger (when he loses it with Christopher) and our pity (when we see that his fury comes from loving and wanting to protect his son). It’s tough but Thomson makes it work.

Ghazal Azarbad is Siobhan, Christopher’s therapist/mentor or counsellor at the special school he attends. There’s some initial audience confusion at first as to who she is when Siobhan begins by reading Christopher’s journal which is written in the first person. But the character is warm, generous and understanding and Azarbad brings all those qualities to the role.

Listed in the credits is Jake Anthony, Cultural Creative Consultant and, because it appears so inclusive and rare, I quote his explanation directly from the press release: “As a person living with autism myself, as well as being a professional theatre artist, my main role has been to work with the actors and creative team to bring Christopher’s world to life in a way that is both accurate and respectful. I had the pleasure of working with the Arts Club to form a Relaxed Performance Advisory Committee, made up of autistic individuals in addition to people who specialize in the field of autism. The mandate of the committee is to offer perspectives on best practices as the Arts Club develops a new relaxed performance initiative for this and other future productions. . . a relaxed performance contains modifications to the conventions of traditional theatre to maximize the comfort of attendees. Sound and lighting cues are adjusted to be more subdued, and the audience is welcome to move around and make noise. The relaxed performance for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time will be on September 30, with tickets offered at a discounted rate.”

Amazing.

All roles but Christopher’s are multi-cast and include Andrew Cownden, Arggy Jenati, Micheal Querin, Anita Wittenberg and Raugi Yu.

This is a warm-hearted, generous-spirited, uplifting show – a gift to parents of offspring, both young and adult, on the autistic spectrum. But it’s also a magically, theatrically told story that tells all of us we can do more than we think we can.

Outgoing Artistic Managing Director Bill Millerd proved just that when he expanded the Arts Club from a funky space on Seymour Street to a three-venue phenomenon including the Granville Island Stage, The Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre and The Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage where theatre magic and theatre mystery are happening nightly in this show until October 7.