Time Out says
Thu Mar 14 2013
Brakes shrieking; people jabbering; a million frantic bits of information rushing past – city life can be too much, even if you have learned to ignore large chunks of it. Which is precisely what 15-year-old Asperger Syndrome sufferer Christopher Boone can’t do.
When he comes to London, at the peak of his strange quest to solve the mysterious death of his neighbour’s dog, he is overwhelmed. Onstage, lights, disconnected letters and people stream all over him. It’s our own hyper-reality, and when you look at it like this, it is madness.
It’s also an electrifying staging of Mark Haddon’s novel, directed by Marianne ‘War Horse’ Elliot. ‘The Curious Incident…’ was the bestselling book of the noughties precisely because it was so successful in showing readers the world from Christopher’s point of view.
What you see more vividly in this tight adaptation by Simon Stephens – a prolific playwright who always hits a nerve – is what it’s like for Christopher’s mum and dad to love their unique, shuttered-up boy, who knows the name of every country and capital city in the world, but screams whenever anyone touches him.
No fear though, this absolutely isn’t a mawkish Swindon-set ‘Rain Man’. Yes, the sheer strangeness of Christopher sheds new and largely heartwarming light on the grumpy coppers, gossipy old neighbours and adulterous wives who are clichés of suburban life. But Luke Treadaway’s performance as Christopher, a maths genius who struggles with the basic emotional facts of life, is romantic without being sentimental.
This National Theatre show, originally made for the tiny Cottesloe stage, doesn’t quite have the ‘wow’ factor of ‘War Horse’. But it tells a great story with sensitivity, flair, and a welcome dose of humour. The physicality of the ensemble keeps it down to earth, but also helps it fly, with the actors crowd-surfing Treadaway’s Christopher around the stage to show how his imagination is fired up by the patterns he sees around him.
In many ways, Christopher is untouchable – cut off from the rest of us. But we’re all outsiders sometimes. And Christopher’s eccentric, intense quest should resonate with anyone who’s ever struggled to make sense of the world around them. Caroline McGinn
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