Divamensch

Richard and I saw this play (full title *The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time*) on Broadway on 2/4.  Richard read the book a few years ago and loved it, so we were excited to see the show, it came over from London last fall.  We both loved it, it was a beautiful show.

 

It’s a touching story about a 15-year old English boy, Christopher John Francis Boone, who is somewhere on the autism spectrum.  On the one hand he has a brilliant mind for math and is a gifted writer - - on the other hand he lacks social skills, to the point where he’s unable to be touched without screaming, even by his parents.  His parents have worked out a system where they can touch him by slowly reaching out their hands and pressing them together.  I found the play emotionally draining, in a good way - - I was experiencing a lot of the emotion that Christopher isn’t able to express.

 

Christopher was played by Taylor Trensch, and he was fantastic.  He’s onstage nearly every minute and he totally drew me in.  He did a brilliant job in a very challenging role.  The rest of the cast was very strong.  I won’t single any of them out, because the show really belongs to the lead actor.

 

The other most impressive part of the show was the staging and design.  It was directed by Marianne Elliott, who also directed *War Horse*, and she is a master in integrating movement and design.  The video effects were incredible, and never gratuitous - - they aided in telling the story.

 

As an added bonus, the show was damn cheap!  We were in the second to last row, which wasn’t an issue, because the theater isn’t all that big, and the set was designed in a way that you could see everything at all times.  Anyway, we paid $27 each.