Sound of Madness

review by Drew Webster

3/8/17

That has got to be one of the most sudden, unexpected and terrifying opening scenes I’ve ever seen. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a straight play about a boy with autism essentially trying to figure out who killed a dog named Wellington. If that doesn’t sound super exciting that’s very good, because the play includes more than a “Who Done it?” murder mystery. While our main character tries to figure out who killed Wellington, the director gives the audience just a glimpse of what happens inside the mind of this boy.

            Let’s just start with our main character: Christopher. The character portrayed by Adam Langdon is very astonishing to stay the least. Adam brought the expressive and loud personality of this autistic boy to live, and I found myself checking to see if this was real or not. Adam’s performance as Christopher wasn’t only believable, but moving. There were times in the show when you really feel worried for Christopher, and times where you really hoped that he would be alright in the end. An actor has done their job if they seem like a real human being, and last night Adam Langdon put himself into the body of Christopher.

            In most theatre, you have to make the set believable or at least make the transition between sets look good. The Curious Incident had probably the most unique set I’ve ever seen, opting for a set that looks like it was ripped from a Tetris game. Not only is it coincidental, since Christopher really likes playing Tetris, but the set was much more then a big black grid with white boxes. For example, the walls could project full size HD images, just like a huge TV. They could also light up on the corners of each box, which included all of the boxes on each side of the stage. Mostly the projections were simple black and white pictures Christopher drew, or projections on both the floor and walls to create a simple layout for a house. However, the real magic came when they wanted you to feel like the main character. For instance, in the train station scenes, the walls became cluttered with tons of text and red pathways, to represent Christopher feeling overwhelmed and how he saw paths on the ground to get him where he needed to go. This strange, simple yet effective approach turned a middle school production simple set into a very different approach to sets in theatre. You didn’t need a bunch of HD projections 24/7 to understand where this play took place, which shows the real magic the director was able to accomplish.

            Tuesday, March 7^th in The Boston Opera house was the day that we got a look into the interesting mind of Cristopher and his life as an Autistic boy trying to piece together the past. I Highly recommend if you’re in Boston for some shows and you don’t want to see the actors break out into song every five minutes, you see this moving and groundbreaking play. It will not disappoint, but just be aware of flashing lights in the beginning.