‘Curious Case’ centers around autistic teen’s investigation
April is Autism Acceptance Month and the PM&L Theatre in Antioch is staging a play that reflects that.
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” is presented at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays April 12-28 in the Dolly Spiering Memorial Auditorium at the PM&L Theatre in Antioch. A sensory performance is at 2:30 p.m. April 13.
The play is by Simon Stephens, based on the novel by Mark Haddon, said Adam Armstrong of Round Lake Beach, managing director at Palette, Masque and Lyre Theatre. It won five Tony Awards in 2015 — including Best New Play — and has been performed all over the world, he said.
“It follows a 15-year-old boy who discovers his neighbor’s dog has been murdered and he decides to go on an investigation to figure out who has killed the dog,” he said. “In the process of looking into that, he learns a lot more about himself and his neighborhood and his community and his family than he knew before, being rather self-isolated due to his autism.”
The novel is told from a first-person point of view and the play manages to capture that by splitting narration between the boy and his teacher, he said.
“In the novel, the book is written as if it was a book he was writing a project for school about the investigation,” he said. “So they are acting out this book he has written about this incident. The conceit of the novel is that he is writing this as a school project so it kind of goes back and forth in time as it talks about what he is learning and what he is reporting to his teacher and what he is going through. The play actually talks about, wouldn’t it be cool to turn this book into a play.”
Armstrong has a cast of 10 and most of the actors play multiple characters that protagonist Christopher Boone encounters during his investigation.
Many productions of this play use a decent amount of lighting and props, but Armstrong
wasn’t interested in going that route. They’re doing the whole show with rehearsal cubes — big plywood boxes that you’d use for stand-in furniture until the set was built — he said.
“It has a lot of scenes that take place in a lot of different places,” he said. “Instead of trying to achieve that through television screens and projections and things, we’re doing it through movement of cubes. The character is very into math, he’s exceptionally good at math, so I felt that the geometric shape of cubes would lean more into his psyche than a whole bunch of fancy equipment.”
Armstrong, who read both the novel and the play when it came out, has a personal connection.
“For many years, I drove a school bus primarily for special-needs students,” he said. “The theater has a commitment to entertainment first and foremost, but also education to a wide and diverse audience. We’re always looking for shows that we think are entertaining, but also fit that part of our mission to educate and to serve more than just our standard patron community. We felt that this was an important story to be told.”
The sensory matinee performance on April 13 will allow people who don’t normally come to the theater the chance to experience a play in a comfortable setting, he said. The lights will be up, the sound effects will be quieted and moving around the auditorium is accepted.
He thinks audiences will enjoy the play.
“I think audiences will connect with a lot of things about the show. It’s really about the journey of the kid and his journey of self-discovery,” he said. “It’s not a sermon on autism or a definite guide to autistic people. It’s just about one person’s unique experience who happens to be autistic. I don’t think it’s a niche show, I think it’s one for everybody.”
The title, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime,” is a Sherlock Holmes reference, he said.
“It’s referential and does have some things to say but it’s also a purely entertaining show,” he said.
Armstrong noted that the show is a popular one — it was just recently staged in Skokie and Wheaton.
“That’s common in community theater,” he said. “That’s part of the blessing we have of having so many community theaters within a 60-mile radius. Which is great, it’s great to have that diverse group of people and that many people committed to performing amateur arts.”