While I was co-leading a student trip to London over winter break, I was able to see the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, based on the novel by the same name. I will admit that I haven’t read the novel, but I really enjoyed the play.

The play is about a teenager who is somewhere along the autism spectrum. It starts with him finding his neighbor’s dog, killed with a garden fork. He then sets out to find out who killed the dog. He uncovers more information than he was expecting.

The set for the play was amazing. One of my students thought it was going to be Tron. But the director uses the staging craftily, with the high used only for emotional effect instead of simple spectacle.

The acting was superb, especially the performance of Graham Butler who plays the lead of Christopher Boone. (And Mr. Butler stood outside the stage door when the play was over and signed one of our student’s program.)

I did think the first half of the play was stronger. It ends with Christopher finding out what happened to the dog. The second half wasn’t quite as compelling, but overall, it was a good experience. (And trust me, I’ve seen some bad ones in London, Lord of the Rings for example.)