The novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which I recently reviewed, was adapted into a play by Simon Stephens. It opened in the West End on August 2, 2012 and closed on June 3, 2017. It had a Broadway run, from October 5, 2014-September 4, 2016. It won prestigious theatre awards, including the Tony Award for Best Play and an Olivier Award for Best New Play. Now it is licensed for use by professional and community theatres.

Raleigh Little Theatre in Raleigh, North Carolina is presenting the play as part of their 2019-2020 season. It is the first local production of Curious Incident. The play features the talents of Michael Larson (Christopher), Simon Kaplan (Ed, Christopher’s father), Rebecca Blum (Judy, Christopher’s mother), Samantha Corey (Siobhan, Christopher’s school social worker), and Benji Jones, George Labusohr, Naveed Moeed, Joey DeSena, Kimmy Fiorentino, and Lucinda Danner Gainey in the ensemble. The play was directed by Patrick Torres. I will state at the outset that Raleigh Little Theatre is a fantastic theatre company that I strongly encourage everyone to continue visiting and supporting.

I found the play to be a faithful adaptation of the source material, which for me, is not really a good thing. My review of the novel makes it clear that I am not a fan, so I went in with an inherent bias—keep that in mind as you read this review. I also go in knowing that as part of the audition process, RLT was adamant about recruiting an autistic actor for the role of Christopher, which many people in the local autism community (including myself) were elated about. I had no involvement in the production, so I don’t know what was in the script, what was the director’s creative decisions, or what were the actors’ chosen interpretations for their performances. Given that, I write this review knowing that I don’t know who was responsible for what—I can only comment on what I saw and how it made me feel, and that most of my issue is with the source material, not the actors.

This play was well-cast. I found the performances to be over-dramatic at times, moreso than I imagined the characters behaving as I was reading the novel, but hey, it’s theatre. Kaplan and Blum, in particular, gave powerful performances as Christopher’s parents. They recruited a winning cast of diverse performers for the ensemble roles, enriching the on-stage presence. Michael Larson was a worthy choice for the role of Christopher—he unsurprisingly nailed the autistic mannerisms like cadence of speech and facial expressions. Additionally, the set design and staging was a clever execution of bringing the story to life. The costumes assigned a color palette to the characters (Christopher=red, Ed=blue, Siobhan=green, ensemble=black), which was very interesting.

Within all that, I still take issue with the story being told. It’s been nearly a year since I’ve read the book it was based on, and I’m reminded of what I found so problematic in it. For example, Christopher believes fiction to be a form of “lying” and therefore worthless. I don’t think I’ve met an autistic who would concur with this assessment, especially since fiction isn’t truly lying when the audience knows it’s fictional. This is not really how an autistic aversion to lying (which isn’t universal) manifests anyway. Another example is that in this production, Christopher curls into a fetal position every time he is upset. I realize this might be for dramatic effect, but I’ll say for the record we don’t all do this. My reaction to stress is more often to freeze and/or exit than it is to visibly react.

This play is intense, with very few comedic moments to be found. Because it was filled with autistic stereotypes and exposed the inner workings of the autistic brain on full display, it was painful to watch, like a voyeuristic journey into the most intimate parts of the mind for someone like me. The person sitting next to me, when I explained my background and my reception of the book, noted that for a non-autistic audience member, watching this play could be a empathetic interaction with the challenges of living with autism: like swirling in a whirlpool of never-ending thoughts as a stranger in a world that doesn’t make sense. I can see that myself as well. If you watch this play or read this book, I hope that is your takeaway, and not that this is what is what all, or most, autistics are like.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time runs at Raleigh Little Theatre in the Gaddy-Goodwin Teaching Theatre from January 17-February 8, 2020. Running time is 2.5 hours. With some strong language and intense themes, parental discretion is advised. As part of RLT’s commitment to inclusive theatre for all, a sensory-friendly performance will be offered on February 9 at 3pm (their first sensory-friendly production for adults).