You may have read my first date jar article from last week, where I reviewed the Waitrose cookery school. My girlfriend had for a long time been mentioning a book that she had obsessively been reading called The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-time. Now, if, like me, you have either not heard of or not read the book, you would think that the general plot is a murder mystery. Considering it is written from a 15 year old’s perspective I was expecting a sort of famous 5 type story line, which puzzled me when my 20 year old girlfriend devoured the book and then dropped multiple hints that she would like to see the theatre production for her birthday.
Being sneaky I took her to the Waitrose Cookery course, only to feign forgetfulness and later surprise her with theatre tickets. Needless to say, I was looking forward to the performance to see the story line that had ruled my other half’s thoughts for months. The first thing I noticed once I entered the auditorium was the stage, it was adorned in a rather unique way with huge graphs on the walls representing X and Y graphs. Again feeling slightly puzzled, I took my seat and sipped my free water, waiting for the production to begin.
Needless to say, it was one of the best productions I have seen. An emotional roller-coaster ride that plucks at your emotional strings throughout, I am rarely moved to tears by theatre but I can say categorically that there were times that only my girlfriend’s nails digging into my leg prevented me from running on to the stage in anger, despair and salvation.
I shall try to give away as little as possible, as I strongly urge anyone to go and see the play who is looking for a heart wrenching, thought provoking, life changing performance. I later found out that the main character, Christopher John Francis Boone, describes himself as “a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties” and although (I am told) his condition is never stated in the book or the play it is painfully obvious that Christopher suffers from a condition that makes him see the world in a new way that is so often not understood by society.
His condition results in him having to combat difficult and often challenging situations, I would see as normal everyday events, an yet through the fantastic acting and unique portal of Christopher. I now see that there are people out there who walk through life in a very different way to me. It ultimately has made me a much more considerate and thoughtful person. It’s a story that stays with you even after you have finished the book or seen the play. For days afterwards I can remember sitting on trains and running over situations in my life that I overlooked or simply walked past due to my ignorance to such conditions as Christopher’s. Situations where, rather than help, I justified walking away because of thoughts such as ‘that guy’s drunk out of his mind’ or ‘blimey, that person’s on some serious drugs!’.
Even if the life changing story is not enough to get you to pop into the National Theatre, then the acting and inventive use of lights, projectors and narrative style should be. Luke Treadaway was so convincing that both my girlfriend and I left questioning whether he actually suffered from the same condition as his character Christopher.
Ultimately both my girlfriend and I had a fantastic time, so much so that both sets of our parents are now looking at booking tickets. So the question is, are you ready to see something life changing?
Tickets can be booked here
