The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time At Birmingham Hippodrome Review

Reviewed by Ellie

Booking & getting there
Birmingham Hippodrome is centrally located in the city centre a few minutes’ walk from New Street Station. I parked at the Arcadian NCP, only a 2-minute walk from the theatre, which offers a post 5pm theatre rate of £7.50 for the evening.

Venue & facilities
Birmingham Hippodrome is a modern theatre, which offers BSL Interpreted, Captioned and Audio Described performances. A small attention to detail, but I loved that the seat row letters were clearly lit up and illuminated, making it extremely easy to locate your seats. I was lucky enough to be seated in the stalls with a perfect view of the stage and felt fully immersed within the production.

Price & Value
The price range of tickets, in my opinion, is extremely good value for money given the quality and length of performance.

Plot Overview
The Curious Incident is based on the mystery novel by Mark Haddon and has since become an Olivier and Tony Award winning production. The production is currently mid-UK tour, giving readers of this review plenty of opportunity to book tickets and see this wonderful and captivating show.

This version of the story is set in 2012 in and around the town of Swindon. The story centres around a 15-year-old boy, Christopher, who lives with what we assume is autism and the social and emotional difficulties that are associated with this condition. Interestingly neither the book nor the theatre production state that Christopher has autism, but simply that he sees the world in a very different way to many people and struggles to interpret human emotions, many of us which take for granted.

Christopher discovers the body of his neighbour’s dead dog and taking it into his own hands to investigate the murder of the dog, it leads him to discover a tangled plot that uncovers lies and heart wrenching betrayal that puts Christopher through some of the biggest emotional tests of his young life.

The plot moves on taking Christopher to London, which through some highly dramatic scenes, depicts just how difficult social encounters and unfamiliar surroundings can be for Christopher. Through a course of events, we see Christopher battle and overcome the social fears associated with autism, a fascinating insight into his intriguing view of the world.

Review
The Curious Incident had not only me, but it seemed the whole audience, gripped from start to finish. A captivating thought provoking and emotional production, which made you smile, made you cry and made you reflect on the complexities and difficulties that some people suffer with throughout their life.

The stage holds a simplistic set with a grid like black backdrop, and white cubes dotted around the stage. A nod to Christopher’s gift as a talented mathematician, and refection of the structure and order that Christopher likes to have in his life. The grid-like back drop comes to life in a variety of ways being used as a blackboard for Christopher to draw out his thoughts and theories, to cleverly portraying rainfall in other scenes.

The performance contains a cast of 15 who cleverly play a variety of characters between them. Each one of them was superb, but praise must go to the main lead and that of his father. Your eyes were firmly glued to their performances which were filled with emotion and at times high intensity drama. A scene which sees Christopher and his father in a physical fight is particularly strong and hard hitting. As are the scenes set on a train bound to London and on the underground. With the clever use of light, sound and graphics, we as an audience are left shaken by the experiences that Christopher goes through associated with his condition. The performance really did give a true feel for Christopher’s anxiety and upset experienced when in unfamiliar surroundings and social situations.

Although hard hitting and emotional at times, the play also contains much humour. There are many laugh out loud moments relating to Christopher’s literal meaning of the world. We laugh with Christopher, rather than at him, sensitively placing us in his shoes as he navigates his way through his unique interpretation of the world and overcomes challenges personal to him.

The play ends with such a pinnacle and thought-provoking question by the lead character which brought tears to my eyes. This is a story line and production that will last with me for a long time. A professional, seamless, captivating, engaging, emotive and thought-provoking performance. I would highly recommend.

Date of performance & review – 29th March 2022
Running Time – 2 Hrs 20 mins plus 15 min interval
Age Guidance – Suitable for 12+ years. Some strong language.
Rating out of 5 – 5 out of 5
Price of tickets – £24.00 to £46.00
Buy tickets – here.
Venue – Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst Street, Southside, Birmingham, B5 4TB
Dates showing – Tuesday 29th March to Saturday 2nd April 2022 in Birmingham