Dramaturgy

Simon Stephens’ The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a contemporary play based off of Mark Haddon’s critically acclaimed book of the same name. The play follows the life events of a boy Christoper, who uses his great investigative skills to solve the murder of his neighbor’s dog. Mark Haddon originally didn’t like the idea of his bookselling for the purpose of film or play adaptation. Fortunately, with the convincing of Stephens, the book was able to be adapted into the play you are about to see. 

This play does a great job of giving an insight into human connections. It shows what it’s like to be interconnected with different people and how that interconnectedness allows people to become more united, embrace differences, and make communities more accepting. Haddon wanted people to see the world through Christopher’s eyes. Christopher’s perspective of the world is a very logical one. He has a great understanding of space, math, and science. While he is an extremely remarkable person with a huge imagination, Christopher finds definite and concrete things more enjoyable and comprehensible. But even though he is a very intelligent person, he can be quite immature at times. By seeing the world from Christopher’s perspective, we realize he is not so different from everyone else. The world is full of so many amazing individuals and when everyone unites together anything is possible.

    Catherine Fradelos