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| Adam Langdon as Christopher Boone in the touring production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time |
By Darlene Donloe
As the crowd
enters the Ahmanson Theatre to take their seats, the stage is bare except for a
dog with a shovel sticking out of its body.
It’s a
disturbing scene, but then it’s supposed to be.
When The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The
Night-Time actually starts - a young boy named Christopher (Adam Langdon)
finds the dog and is wondering just how it happened. When the dog’s owner walks
up and finds 15-year-old Christopher leaning over the dog – she assumes he’s
the one who killed it. Of course, Christopher, who is autistic, professes his
innocence and vows to find the real culprit. While he’s a mathematical genius, Christopher finds walking down the
street, being touched or holding a conversation, to be an extraordinary
challenge. That being said, he has a
fierce wit and great comedic timing, even when he’s not trying.
During his
search Christopher, who is exceptionally intelligent, must also deal with emotional
and dramatic family issues that send him on a journey of personal discovery. This
is, essentially, Christopher’s coming-of-age story.
Langdon, a
Juilliard graduate, is exceptional in a high-energy, focused and sometimes
breathless performance.
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| Adam Langdon as Christopher Boone (center) with the cast |
The special
effects are incredible, making this show a pictorial masterpiece and a true
original. Of course, the visuals add texture and another dimension (literally)
to the story. It doesn’t overpower or sidetrack
the forward movement of the story.
It’s easy and
obvious why this show is a Tony and Olivier Award-winning Best Play. It’s a
stunning and impressive play, especially as it shows inventive ways of
immersing the audience in the point of view of how an autistic views and
experiences the world.
Fantastic
performances all-around from the stellar cast of this touring production.
Marianne
Elliott’s (Tony winner War Horse)
direction is solid keeps the story moving -literally. There are so many moving
parts that the senses don’t know where to look.
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The
Night-Time, directed by
Marianne Elliott, a new play by Simon Stephens, based on the novel by Mark
Haddon, stars Adam Langdon, Benjamin Wheelwright, Gene Gillette, Maria Elena
Ramirez, Felicity Jones Latta, Kathy McCafferty, Francesca Choy-Kee, Amelia White,
Brian Robert Burns, Josephine Hall, Robyn Kerr, Geoffrey Wade, John Hemphill,
Tim Wright, J. Paul Nicholas and Tim McKiernan.
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| L-R: Gene Gillette as Ed and Adam Langdon as Christopher Boone |
Kudos to the
production team, including production designer and Tony Award-winner Bunny
Christie, Tony Award-winning video designer Finn Ross, lighting designer and
Tony Award-winner Paule Constable, choreographer Scott Graham and Olivier
Award-winner Steven Hoggett for Frantic Assembly. Music is by Adrian Sutton, sound by Ian
Dickinson for Autograph, and hair and wig design by David Brian Brown. Casting
is by Daniel Swee, CSA and Cindy Tolan, CSA.
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The
Night-Time, The
Ahmanson, 135 N. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles; 8 p.m., Tues-Fri.; 2 and 8 p.m.,
Sat.; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, through September 10, 2017; no performance on
Mondays; $25-$130; www.CenterTheatreGroup.org,
213 972-4400.
On the DONLOE
SCALE: D (don’t bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likeable), O (oh, yeah)
and E (excellent), The Curious Incident
Of The Dog In The Night-Time gets an E (excellent).
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