Understanding and Laughing with Christopher

review by Justin Chen

            It is amazing to watch a production that well interpret in a such limited stage. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time performed in Boston Opera House offered audience a whole new experience on theater. By utilizing limited stage, the cast and the stage crew mastered this play with their highly professional skills and the understanding of this place. It was a joyful time for audience to enjoy.

            The play is talking about a teenager that is different from our normal human being. He is a suspect of killing his neighbor’s dog. But he is not the killer. Meanwhile, he starts an investigation to find out who is the killer. However, during his investigation, his family is broken apart. His mother is divorcing with his dad and moving to London. But at the end, after a series of incidents happen, his family eventually getting back together.

            The play itself is a fun thing to watch and easy to be understood. The Autism boy, Christopher, is the essence of this play. With his unstable emotion and abnormal action, it is easy for audience to understand what the author wants to communicate. Adam Langdon is such a good actor. He is locating the character accurately. From the beginning of the play until the end of the play, he didn’t zone out from his character. This is a hard character to be interpreted. Not because of his British accent but also his action. Those actions are not easy to be acted because it is hard for normal human being to understand. However, Mr. Langdon did a great job. At the moment, he started to speak, I know this character is an abnormal human.   

Siobhan is another hard character; she is both a narrator and an actor in the show. That require actor has a fast reaction. At the beginning, Siobhan was reading a narration from a binder. In the middle of the narration, she stood up and became one of the teacher in Christopher’s school. After a few sentences, she went back to be a narrator. These changes are complicated because the actor needs to memorize a lot of line and choreography and line. Also, the actor needs to reminds itself when is the teacher and when is the narrator. Maria Elena Ramirez did a marvelous job acting out the character. It’s an enjoyment to watch this. The writer wrote this is really smooth to the play is for the audience to understand.

The staging and the choreography were another shining point of the night. The stage is small which create a lot of inconveniences. However, the director was well utilized the stage by using the projection and the drawer next to the stage to tell the audience that the characters were moving. The equipment was well prepared. The actors were easy to reach the equipment. The choreography was fabulous as well. At the scene where Christopher in the subway station, the actor was using dance to communicate that the subway was moving. With the well projection and the choreography, it was easy for people to tell that where are they. The place such as classroom, neighborhood and on the train.

This show is such an entertainment to watch. Not only because is funny but also it tells us a lot of things that happen in our society such as care more about the autism community and care about more about the children who have a broken family. I really want to thanks the Boston Opera house can offer such wonderful place to watch this wonderful show.