Swish of the Curtain

Wow!  I loved Mark Haddon’s 2003 book but this National Theatre adaptation of it completely blew me away. Christopher Boone is a fifteen year old who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome. He is an extremely intelligent and observant young boy who is resolved to pass his maths A level with an A star. He adores numbers, logic, lists, patterns, Sherlock Holmes novels, dogs and the colour red. He abhors the colours yellow and brown, lies and, sadly for those that love him, physical contact with other human beings.

The play opens with a night-time scene in which Christopher stumbles upon his neighbour’s dog, Wellington, lying dead in the garden.  A police officer arrives, assumes the boy is guilty and immediately whisks him off to the police station for interrogation.  On release, Christopher becomes determined to discover the identity of Wellington’s true murderer but as he sets about this ‘detective work’ he begins to uncover shocking secrets that will change his life once and for all.

The play uses a highly abstract set of midnight blue light divided into a three dimensional grid.  It reminds the audience of how a boys with Aspergers might see the world.  It is put to effective use in my favourite scene when Christopher takes his first ever visit to a train station.  Alongside bursts of sound and light, numbers cascade down the walls and mathematical equations flash by.  The clever staging results in sensory overload and it gave me some insight to Christopher’s terrifying experience.

The mystery story unfolds unlike anything I’ve seen and at the very end of the show, if you are willing to stay after the curtain call and once people have started to leave the theatre, Christopher adds a funny postscript.  He comes back onto the stage and shows us how he worked out a particularly challenging question from his Maths A level exam!