Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime Play Review

(Viewed Saturday, Nov 16th, 2019)

Watching the play, I saw many themes and ideas that were shown throughout the two hours. The main idea of the play is about how Christopher, a fifteen year old boy with autism, had gone through a rough patch in his life, and what his actions were based off the environment he was put in. His mother leaving him with a father who cannot hold back his anger on certain occasions had put him under a lot of stress. The path to solving the mystery of who killed the dog had put him on an unexpected path leading him to finding out a lot more than he should have. With autism as a factor, it was hard for him to process everything and hold in the new information without causing anymore problems in his family. He then went on a journey to find his mother after his father hit him and lied to him. He ended up finding his mother and reuniting with his father at the end of the play. He evolved from a kid who was not confident in himself to someone who believed he could do anything.

The play was incredible in my opinion. The actors played their parts super well and the transitions and ideas that were portrayed to make the CA play unique had worked out perfectly. I liked the lighting, how each actor sat on the sides in the dark, and the physical energy brought to the stage. Everyone on the stage was able to play their characters with confidence, definitely something that I cannot do myself. I believe the characters that were highlighted as most important were Christopher, Ed, Judy, and Siobhan, since they were the ones who appeared or were talked about the most. The sound effects and the transition music felt like music that would go on in a head that were processing many things at once, such as Christopher himself. 

The two scenes that stuck out to me the most were both dead silent. During the Saturday play, the seats were filled. I remember the people next to me always whispering but when those two specific scenes came I couldn’t even hear them breathing. One of the scenes was when Ed took out his anger on Christopher and hit him to the ground because he thought Christopher was still sticking his nose into other people’s businesses even after his own father told him not to. The silence was portrayed perfectly leaving the audience in shock. Not once, but twice, when Ed walked into the room after Christopher read all the letters that Ed tried to hide from him. He tried to talk sense into Christopher and then told him the truth, that he also had killed the dog. This scene broke Christopher’s mind where he knew he didn’t feel safe around his father anymore. Both scenes with the silence really affected the audience, so I applaud to that.

The best actor or character shown was definitely Willjam playing as Ed. His seriousness and his emotions really made us feel like he was the dad to a child with autism and he was doing everything he could until his mentality could not handle it anymore. His voice is very strong and confident, just like a confident dad which Ed was in the most part. Well, he didn’t shave until after the play, so the facial hair helped the costume. I don’t believe anyone could play the role of Ed better than him. 

Overall, the play was amazing. If I were to compare the CA play to the one on Broadway, the Broadway play had more props and more actors, as well as a bigger stage, but with what we had, we were still able to pull something like this off, which was very surprising and impressive. I learned that you can do anything no matter how big or small the space and environment is and with whatever props you have or don’t have. After seeing this, not I’m even more excited for the school musical.