Criterion Theatre triumph in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Criterion Theatre, Earlsdon offers a superb interpretation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a play which was a huge West End and Broadway hit in 2013 and 2015, winning numerous awards on both sides of the Atlantic. Criterion Theatre’s smaller scale adaptation does the play proud, not least in Charlie Maline’s magnificent performance as Christopher, an autistic 15 year-old who sets out to solve the mystery of who killed a neighbour’s dog. Along the way various family secrets are revealed, secrets which because of his autism had been kept from him.

Christopher’s ultra-realistic interpretation of events sheds new light on them and exposes the love and pain his parents feel at caring for someone who lives in the same world as them, but who experiences it very differently. Christopher's struggles become their own, and ours too, as we move with him through an alien world that is often hostile to him and to his senses, and which gives him little room for comfort. In the end, Christopher achieves a kind of triumph by achieving all his own goals in his own idiosyncratic way.

Simon Stephens’s adaptation of Mark Haddon’s successful novel demands that all characters remain on stage throughout the performance. So, as well as Christopher we see lead parts played Anne Bevan as Siobhan, his mentor at school, Dave Grove as Ed, his father and Lilian McGrath as Judy, his mother. An ensemble of eight other actors play a variety of parts, waiting upstage and reacting in unison to some of the action. Scenes move seamlessly from one to another, and the pace never slackens.

The sad truth kept from Christopher is that his mother, worn out and exasperated by her son’s difficult behaviour and the apparent lack of support from her husband, has left the family to run away to London with a neighbour's husband. To cover up this painful truth his father tells Christopher that his mother is dead and hides from him the weekly letters she sends him. This rift in the family is movingly presented by Lilian McGrath, who so desperately wants to love her son but to whom she cannot get close enough to even touch him. His father, sometimes angry, often confused and hurt, but now so willing to do what he can for the boy, is given great dignity by Dave Grove.

When Christopher finds out the truth, he sets off to London alone to live with her, never having gone much further than his home street in Swindon. His passage by public transport is frighteningly evoked, as each and every ‘normal’ sight and sound is amplified by his mental state.

Adults, on the whole, are hostile to him, and those that aren’t often find reasons to say sorry to him for their failure to understand and treat him honestly. The play, and the performance’s triumph, is in presenting all sides of the situation without resorting to polemic. Christopher is difficult, yes, but terribly vulnerable and at the same terribly brave. Charlie Maline’s performance is perfectly pitched throughout, and Chris Ingall’s direction is sensitive and imaginative.

In the end Christopher wins through, and he gains top marks in his cherished Maths A-level. That is his triumph, and the thing that matters most to him. And after that? The play nods at his hopes, but will they ever be achieved? We are left both hopeful and anxious for a character who has won our hearts and exposed our failings to live with his neurodiversity.

The whole run is sold out, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they could do as much with twice the number of shows. It’s a great play, served affectionately and respectfully by Earlsdon’s wonderful Criterion Theatre, one of the best amateur theatre companies in the region. They deserve each other.

For more information and tickets head to: criteriontheatre.co.uk

1-8 February 2025.