The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a play adapted from the 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. The novel is told from a first-person perspective by Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy living in suburban England who describes himself as "a mathematician with some behavioral difficulties."
Christopher's condition is never identified, but he appears to fit the profile of someone living on the autism spectrum, with a condition once referred to as Asperger's syndrome. Haddon has blogged that he is not an expert on autism, and that "Curious Incident is not a book about Asperger's....if anything, it's a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way."
The theatrical version of The Curious Incident, which makes a few changes to the story's cast of characters but remains focused on young Christopher and his poignant interaction with the world, was written by Simon Stephens and first performed in 2012 by the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain. The play enjoyed successful runs both on London's West End (where it's still on stage) and on Broadway, where it concluded an award-winning two-year run this past September. Now, a new production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has begun a North American tour. Our theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck caught a performance at Washington DC's Kennedy Center Opera House, and she joins Tom in the studio with her review.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time continues at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. through Sunday , October 23rd.
