People Confuse me

review by Sammy Gelerman

            Could you imagine stepping inside the mind of another human being? How about a fifteen-year-old autistic boy, who is a challenge to understand, and who doesn’t listen to his elders when he’s told to stop playing detective and to let the mysterious death of Wellington the dog rest in peace? The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time adapted by Simon Stephens, took advantage of their unique set to help the audience step inside the complex mind the main character, Christopher.

            The stage was a three dimensional cube, with three open walls. Within each wall on the stage, dots of lighting created many small squares the covered the length and width. The dots lit up in white, green, or red and were used to convey images of emotion on the way. Also the dots would light up and flash to portray to the audience, how Christopher was feeling. The props used, were remarkable and added to the technology used to depict the storyline. The way they used the shifting of lighting, and props to show the audience different locations and change in scenes. 

            The story line was very simple and the sensory details, although shown very well, lacked a thrilling climax. With the story, creating a more colorful flashy visual may have taken away from plot. However, this theatre production, shown at the Boston Opera house was certainly eye opening, and it gave the audience a look inside the life of someone unique a most likely someone very different from themselves any anything they know.