Must see: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, NT: Cottesloe, London SE1

 

Paul Taylor
Thursday 09 August 2012 17:58 BST
Comments
Lights and magic Luke Treadaway in 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'
Lights and magic Luke Treadaway in 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' (Manuel Harlan)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Following a fine tradition of absorbing first-person narrative into third-person drama, the playwright Simon Stephens makes Mark Haddon's brilliant cult novel an ensemble piece about putting on a play.

In this case, it's 15-year-old autistic genius Christopher Boone's book that has been read by a teacher and turned into a schoolroom drama; but with amazing lighting that illustrates the algebraic conundrums at the heart of his emotional crisis.

A doggy corpse stuck with a garden fork sets Christopher (Luke Treadaway) off on his detection trail. Who killed the dog? And: where's my mother?

This is a profoundly moving play about adolescence, fractured families and mathematics, with a superb support cast of Niamh Cusack, Paul Ritter and Nicola Walker. But it is the remarkable Treadaway's evening: he nails the required tone of headlong intellectual assurance and unguarded neediness.

(020 7452 3000; nationaltheatre.org.uk) to 26 Oct

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in