The Curious Incident
of the Dog in the Night-Time is the story of Christopher Boone, a teenager
with Asperger’s Syndrome who decides to investigate the murder of his
neighbor’s dog. Throughout his investigation, however, he discovers more about
himself than he bargained for.
Christopher’s relationships with the people around him become more and
more strained. The audience goes in expecting a lighthearted tale about a boy
investigating the murder of a dog, and instead become privy to the inner
workings of the trust, or distrust, within a family. Instead, a boy on the
edges of society discovers irrevocable truths that alter his life forever.
The Curious Incident
of the Dog in the Night-Time explores the complicated relationship between
Christopher and his father. Throughout the first act, Christopher and his
father are at an impasse. Christopher wants to find out who murdered Mrs.
Shears’ dog, Wellington, and his father wants him to stop his detective work. Christopher
stubbornly and despite his father’s warnings continues his investigation, an
investigation that consistently places him out of his comfort zone. But
Christopher has a thirst for truth. Since he is incapable of telling the lies,
he is a very reliable narrator. However, this makes the investigation that much
more difficult because other people, clearly, do not feel the same way about
telling the truth. Christopher and his father are never quite on the same train
of thought; however, Christopher’s relationship with his father is much better
than his relationship with his mother. During the first act, Christopher
believes his mother is dead because this is the lie that his father has told
him rather than telling him that she ran out on them to be with another man.
Christopher discovers two truths about his father around the
same time and he does not cope well with either of them. The first truth is
that his father killed Wellington, and the second one is that his mother is not
dead. When he finds out these pieces of information, the betrayal is all the
worse because the parent he trusts the most has suddenly become untrustworthy.
When he realizes his mother is alive, he goes to live with her. Yet, it is not
because he misses her, but because his father is a murderer. In Christopher’s
mind, if his father is capable of murdering Wellington, he is also capable of
murdering him. Upon arriving in London, he finds she and her new husband to be less
than welcoming. She is not a great parent; however, by the end of the play she
does earn some forgiveness. Where his
father shows patience, his mother shows frustration. Where his father shows
unconditional love, his mother shows love when her guilt overpowers her. During
the play, she even admits that she was not prepared to have a child with
behavioral difficulties. She admits that she has felt embarrassed by
Christopher at times. She is inherently selfish and unprepared to take care of
Christopher in the way he needs to be cared for. While she does improve by the
end of the play—she leaves behind her new husband to take Christopher back to
Swindon in order to care for him—she still has more growing to do in terms of
understanding, acknowledging, and accepting Christopher’s wants and needs.
Christopher has another person in his life whom he completely
trusts, perhaps even more than his parents: his teacher, Siobhan. Siobhan acts
as Christopher’s encourager. Throughout the play, she is often the voice of
reason. She encourages Christopher to be open to change and to expand his
horizons. Often, when Christopher is having anxious moments, he hears Siobhan’s
voice in his head, helping him to move forward rather than to remain paralyzed.
Siobhan mirrors the audience in that she, more than anything, is an observer in
Christopher’s life. She is not his parent, nor does she have any blood relation
to him, yet she still wants to help him.
The stage configuration in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time truly helps the
audience step into Christopher’s frame of mind.
Christopher thinks in numbers, in facts. Every aspect of his life can be
placed in box, much like the shape of the stage. The digital aspects of the
show really aided in portraying Christopher’s state of mind. When he could not
handle conversations in real life, the projections on the stage and the
hastened pace and volume of the music showed this inability to cope with real
life. During some of these scenes where he is overwhelmed, Christopher can hear
Siobhan in his head telling him what to do, and the audience is able to see his
process of calming down in order to deal with the situation at hand. While
Christopher trusts his parents to an extent, it is not portrayed in the stage
configuration or technical aspects of the play like it is with Siobhan. When
viewing Christopher in real life, the stage never expands, only shrinks at some
point, but when Christopher has his fantasy of becoming an astronaut, the stage
alights with projections of outer space. This is the only time that
Christopher’s mind expands. This seems reflective of Christopher’s state of
mind. He has a more limited perception of experiencing life due to his
behavioral difficulties. Christopher views the world in a revealing and
unexpected way. He is very insightful when it comes to other people, but less
when it comes to himself, and the stage configuration reflects this lack of
insight in his mind.
The set ties together Christopher’s mind and his relationship
with the most important people in his life, especially his father. Christopher
spends much of the show building a train set his father gave him. It seems as
if it is a source of comfort for him. As he finds out that his mother is still
alive by reading all of the letters she sent him, he is building the train set.
Christopher’s father is his universal constant. Siobhan cannot be there for him
always, as she is just his teacher, and his mother left him. Even when
Christopher is angry at his father, he still trusts him and knows that he will
always be there. A story that whose original motivation was finding a dog’s
murderer turns into a story about the trust between a not-so-average boy, and
the family that surrounds him.
