The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Theatre Royal, Bath Until Saturday

HOW do you convey the raw emotions, conflicting thoughts and bewilderment of a young man with autism, without using words?

The award-winning theatrical adaptation of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a masterclass in showing the unspoken, revealing a complex inner world through sound, light and physicality.

Flawlessly transferred to the stage, the play follows the adventures of Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old from Swindon with an extraordinary brain but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, detests being touched and mistrusts strangers. But when he falls under suspicion of killing his neighbour Mrs Shears’s dog Wellington with a garden fork, he sets out on a mission to solve the murder, recording each fact in a book.

His “detective work”, forbidden by his father, takes him on a journey that upturns his world, throwing into question his mother’s sudden passing in the process.

While a narrator of sorts steers the plot, reading from Christopher’s book and giving us welcome glimpses into his impressions and incomprehension at a world which threatens to overwhelm him, his tangled thoughts, anxiety and knee-jerk reactions are rendered with full visual force through his awkward body language and constant agitation.

Throughout the cacophony in his mind is strikingly mirrored by deafening electro music and overpowering flashing lights and strobe effects.

Joshua Jenkins is stellar as Christopher, perfectly portraying the young man’s confusion and inability to pierce through the fog of social interaction, lies and veiled meanings.

Few actors could pull off high-energy stunts, flips or walking on walls so effortlessly.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’s uncanny capacity to make Christopher’s intimate world tangible is truly remarkable. MARION SAUVEBOIS