Play’s audio-visual design guides audience to teen’s extraordinary mind
Christopher Boone has an extraordinary mind.
The 15-year-old protagonist of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” processes the world in ways that are different than most other teenagers, though that difference isn’t boiled down neatly into a diagnosis — aspects of his mind are similar to those with Asperger syndrome, a type of autism.
Mark Haddon’s novel about a boy who investigates the death of a neighbor’s dog makes the reader see through Christopher’s eyes using diagrams, atypical formatting and firstperson narration. But how did the stage adaptation, which won a 2015 Tony Award for best play and opens Tuesday at the Hobby Center for a six-night run, accomplish the same fear in a medium where internal perspectives don’t come as naturally?
Paule Constable, who won a Tony for best lighting design of a play for her work on “Curious Incident,” says that was
the big challenge for creating a world that was seen, essentially, from the point of view of Christopher.
Her strategy? Eschewing the pizzazz you’d see in a Broadway musical and focusing instead on color, math and intimacy, the building blocks of Christopher’s brain.
“When we made the show, I imagined what it would be like if Chris was lighting the show,” she says. “There are colors that he likes and colors that he doesn’t. When he imagines his mother by the seaside, the whole space suddenly turns iridescent blue. It’s an emotional barometer.”
In other words, Constable, along with video designer Finn Ross and scenic designer Bunny Christie, gives audiences a perspective that transcends the literal. Lights flash on the stage like birds. Numbers, letters and phrases pop up on the walls. The floor becomes graphing paper, symbolizing Christopher’s mathematical brain, wanting to categorize and organize everything it sees.
“You could have made every moment in the play a complete sensory overload,” Constable says.
But she wasn’t interested in merely dazzling audiences with impressive sights.
“What we’re trying to do is get the audience to almost picture how to perceive the world through his eyes,” she says. “You have to choose your moment.”
With regard to bright lights and fancy animations, Constable did not want to risk “pushing things too hard.”
For actor Gene Gillette, who plays Christopher’s father, Ed, every detail in “Curious Incident” is meant for one thing — telling the story of a son, a father and the way they communicate after losing a mother and wife.
“There’s amazing effects, but it comes down to the story and telling the story,” he says. “The chaos and beauty they’ve created is rooted in the play, and enhances the play. It’s not blowing anything up.”
So “Curious Incident” isn’t just a designer’s play — it’s an actor’s play as well. “That’s the coolest part for me, getting to act in these bare stages in two-character scenes, and have these beautiful special effects.”
Still, there’s no denying the production-related achievements of the play, which Constable says has the technical complexity of a musical and more.
Lighting and video designs blend together seamlessly so it’s impossible to tell which aspect is which. Sounds and lights interact with one another so the timing can be perfect — using a new form of audio-visual technology, the production uses software that enables sound cues to automatically trigger lighting effects, rather than requiring manual stage work, Constable says.
So, while the lights and colors tell what Gillette calls an “intimate family portrait,” technical wonders are happening as well.
“All of this was pushing technology at the time,” Constable says. “What’s lighting or projection? It’s entirely collaborative. We’re purposely trying to blur the edges.”
‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Jan. 29 Where: Hobby Center, 800 Bagby Tickets: $30-$120; 800-952-6560, hobbycenter.org