Review: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME at Burbage Theatre

If you've ever felt left out or not able to connect with a particular group, unable to socialize or detested being touched, Burbage's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" will hit many personal cords.

Based on the 2003 Mystery novel by Mark Haddon, who won took home Whitbread's Best Novel and Book of the Year awards, the play version, adapted by Simon Stephens, took home its own awards with the Tony Award in 2015 for Best Play.

The two-hour play with one 10-minute intermission revolves around 15-year-old Christopher, played so incredibly by Elijah Russell, a person who loves mathematics, but has never gone beyond the end of his road, hates to be touched and detests strangers.  Though the play never gets into descriptions like "autism" or "aspergers", you can tell that Christopher is on the autism spectrum, as he commonly rolls up in a ball and moans to himself when a change occurs or something happens that he is not comfortable with.  When Christopher's favorite animal, his neighbor's dog Wellington, is found dead (with a weird pitchfork in him), he works slowly to get out of his comfort zone to investigate how the dog died and why.  What he discovers in the process will change his life and everyone involved in it forever.

Michael Thibeault plays an wonderful and heart-wrenching performance as Christopher's Dad Ed, who struggles mightily with his son's disability, doing what he can to make Christopher comfortable in his world while slowly losing it in his own.  Alison Crews plays the narrator and Christopher's teacher Siobhan while Amie Lytle rounds out the main cast as Christopher's lost mother, Judy.  The ensemble cast plays multiple hilarious and pivotal roles that make this play what it is including H. Avery, Paula Faber, Mireya Hoffens, Philip Iredale, Omar Laguerre-Lewis and Teddy Lytle.

For me, I see a little bit of Christopher in all of us-the inability to change, the need to find out more of your personal history at any cost , the focus on one particular person or thing that becomes too much, oh yeah, we've all been there. 

"The Curious Incident of a Dog at Night-Time" is something like you've never seen before.  Part of you may spend time during the play empathizing with the parents that go through a lot in dealing with a child with a disability every day while others will want to push Christopher to new heights as we can feel it in our bones that he is much stronger than he ever lets on. Can someone who hates strangers find the answers he needs in a city he's never been to? We'll see about that, but the journey is one that will be eye-opening for all of us and we will, in the end, be very grateful for the ride.

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