How do you not hate a kid who just graduated from Juilliard and is immediately given the starring role in a Broadway play? When the actor is Alex Sharp, the question becomes how does someone that young and inexperienced give such a brilliant performance? As Christopher, the boy who is a genius, except when he’s dealing with other humans, Sharp is onstage virtually the entirety of The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-Time. Within that time, he does what seems nearly impossible: he makes a character who is inherently unlikeable into someone we care about deeply. Christopher clearly has Asperger Syndrome, although the term is never used. No one seems to understand his autism; because his communication skills are poor, he’s put into a school with children he assesses as “stupid.”
The stage features three black-and-white walls, as well as the floor, covered in graphs. It’s rural England, but really, we are seeing life through the youngster’s take on the world.
Boxes onstage are used for various purposes and to keep things in order. This sums up Christopher’s existence, in which he is boxed in because it’s easier on him, and on those around him, to keep him in check. Left to his own devices, the world is a threatening and confusing place to the boy, who screams, collapses, and has fits if too highly over-stimulated. The subway system is a crazy-quilt nightmare. His parents can’t touch him; it’s too harrowing. He shrinks from physical human contact; the only connection he can bear is the slow, light touching together of palms. Christopher lives an almost entirely self-involved existence. He doesn’t respond to the joy or despair of those around him.
But he does care about animals. The play starts and ends with Christopher’s involvement with dogs. The killing of his neighbor’s huge shaggy mutt, which has been murdered with a pitchfork, sets the action in motion. Christopher is horrified to discover the bloody body, and collapses, keening. He then resolves that he will be Sherlock Holmes. He’ll go around the neighborhood, ask questions, and solve the mystery of who killed Wellington. He also takes it upon himself to snoop around in his house, and discovers something very unexpected in his dad’s bedroom. In the process, some tightly wound lies unravel, and neither Christopher nor his family will ever be the same.
We come to care for Christopher because Sharp plays him dead honest. He doesn’t try to sugarcoat the strangeness or pander to our emotions. There’s no “poor, poor pitiful me” about the eccentric adolescent. He takes life exactly as he finds it, without the frills. Four red cars in a row is a good day. If his father could kill in his “red mist,” he might kill his son, too.
Christopher informs us that he’s better than other people, because he’s very intelligent, and he notices everything. He’s not bragging; it’s just a fact of his life.
All the actors present their characters with conviction. If I had to choose a favorite, it would be Ian Barford. As Christopher’s father, he’s loving, cruel, frantic and bewildered. He has a son he loves more than his life, but he can’t understand what’s going on inside the boy’s head. Francesca Faridany brings real warmth to Siobhan, the teacher who does her best to help. Enid Graham makes Judy sympathetic and understandable. Performers act as a near Greek chorus, helping Christopher with his coat, making suggestions, taking on different roles.
The same brilliant director of War House is at the helm here. Marianne Elliott understands well the importance of unconventional choices to surprise and delight the audience. This is using theatrical effect to the best advantage. The sets are revolutionary, the lighting mindboggling, and the tricks and turns and cubbyholes add a great deal to the evening. Stay for the epilogue; you won’t miss the extra few minutes, and I guarantee you’ll be dazzled.
I have no doubt that when it comes time to make the movie version, Daniel Radcliffe will play the lead. That’s the way things go in Hollywood. But as fine an actor as Radcliffe is, he’ll have an uphill battle getting us to accept anyone but the amazing Alex Sharp as Christopher.
