Featuring, left to proper – Drew Saint Amour, Ellen Quay, and Paul Valleau. Photo by Brandon Bentley.
Initially “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” looks as if a tragic story a couple of boy and a canine. As the play opens, we see the physique of a susceptible canine named Wellington pierced with a backyard fork (British converse for pitchfork), and a small, quivering, hooded boy kneeling over the canine’s physique. Who would do such a factor? And why use one thing as brutal as a backyard fork, in the midst of the evening? The play will get curiouser and curiouser because the boy (additionally the prime suspect) decides to analyze this crime, changing into the framework for the remainder of the play.
Director Tobin’s ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ is a transferring portrait of a boy attempting to beat his limitations.
We rapidly study the boy, Christopher Boone (performed by Drew St. Amour), has an unspecified incapacity, though most individuals seeing the play will relate to Christopher as on the autism spectrum or as having Asperger’s Syndrome. He is clearly very good, however the world outdoors both his home or his particular college triggers him. Noise, site visitors, crowds, sudden conditions, or contact can scale back him to a crumpled, sobbing, and moaning heap. Christopher feels compelled to seek out out who killed Wellington, doubtless his greatest buddy. He appears pushed by some innate sense that fixing Wellington’s homicide could reveal different issues he must know.
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” is predicated on the award-winning guide written by Mark Haddon in 2003. The 2012 stage adaptation was written by Simon Stephens. It was the recipient of seven 2013 Olivier Awards. In 2015, it received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding New Broadway Play, the Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play, and 5 2015 Tony Awards, together with Best Play.
Directed right here by Steve Tobin, we slowly turn into aware about Christopher’s inside world and the way he manages to navigate in ours. We see the significance of order and quiet to him. When careworn, he begins to show sequences of associated numbers via his head, usually in a protected place like beneath a desk or in a baggage rack on a prepare. He loves the cosmos as a result of there are not any folks there, and he loves his pet rat, Tobey, and the previous Wellington as a result of they’re predictable and don’t speak.
Initially there’s a narrator (properly performed by Aparna Sri) studying from Haddon’s guide. The textual content explains the motion earlier than us as Christopher is initially bewildered. Slowly, as the thought for an investigation takes maintain, Christopher decides to interview his neighbors within the close by townhouses, most of whom he has by no means met. This is all extraordinarily tough for him and arduous to observe, however one way or the other, after predictable meltdowns, he manages to get via. As his confidence grows, the narrator recedes, permitting him to play his personal story.
Unfortunately, the arrival of his investigation coincides with Christopher’s home life starting to crumble. There are issues he isn’t meant to find out about his absent mom (Ellen Quay) or why his father (Paul Valleau) hates Wellington’s proprietor. With every troubling discovery, he’s much more decided to proceed. Valleau performs Christopher’s dad as a misplaced soul, out of his depths with a particular wants child. He is even-tempered—till he isn’t. Christopher’s mom is loving and anxious—till she isn’t. We perceive how tough Christopher is to cope with. He has the management of a toddler however the measurement and intelligence of an grownup, and our hearts break for him nonetheless.
St. Amour’s Christopher is spectacular on this all-consuming function. He is continually transferring when on stage and by no means stops his OCD hand-rubbing. His frequent suits require head-banging on the ground and guttural noises, that are convincing and arduous to observe.
The good units play a major half in understanding Christopher’s world and the play. The brunt of the set right here is technological (Set Designer Edd Miller, Lighting Designer John H. Purnell III, Special Effects Designers Wes Bedsworth and Eric Hufford) as overhead lights and projections are used to assist the viewers really feel Christopher’s moods in addition to these of the opposite characters. Wellington is cleverly manifested as a lighted drawing on the ground with a backyard fork sticking up, and we’re grateful to be spared from a worse embodiment of the crime. On his journey, whether or not to see his counselor (properly performed by Aparna Sri) or to make a journey to London, operating LED lights imbedded round tiles on the ground mild up paths for Christopher to observe. He stumbles ahead step-by-step, head all the way down to ignore the perceived chaos round him, and eyes educated on the transferring lights on the ground to prepared the ground. The ensemble solid serves as doorways and coat racks when not in character, however they nonetheless add silent commentary as they have a look at one another, making facial expressions in regards to the scene.
Director Tobin’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” is a transferring portrait of a boy attempting to beat his limitations. Initially the viewers types via and understands the motion on the similar time Christopher types via his personal. The first act is discovery and shock for all involved. The second act, whereas slower, reveals how a lot Christopher has grown on his journey, and the way a lot we now have discovered ourselves.
Running Time: Approximately two hours with one 15-minute intermission.
Advisory: Features grownup language and high-intensity audio and lighting results, together with strobe lighting.
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night” runs via May 18, 2024 at The Colonial Players of Annapolis, 108 East Street, Annapolis, MD, 21401. For extra data, please name the Box Office 410-268-7373, or go online.
