THE Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon is one of my favourite books. I devoured it in more or less one sitting. So I was a bit apprehensive about whether the stage version would live up to the book.
I went to the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre's Second Space last night to see a National Theatre Live screening of the play. These screenings are a great idea and allow you to see plays you wouldn't normally get the chance to see.
In this case the story follows 15-year-old autistic Christopher Boone as he tries to find out who killed his neighbour's dog, Wellington, with a pitchfork.
Luke Treadaway is amazing as Christopher.
His whole body and face becomes his character. With screenings the camera zooms in on every emotion on the actor's face and not once did I see Luke come out of character.
The story is helped along by Siobhan, played by Niamh Cusack, who intermittantly reads out Christopher's story.
It is a clever way of doing it as the audience enter scenes seamlessly without any clunky set changes.
The stage is a blank canvas with very little props, which at first I wasn't sure about.
The ability of the actors to bring on props, without me even noticing, and to move and dance to suggest certain things was amazing.
For example at one point an actor was a bed for Christopher to lie on.
The choreography in the play was spellbinding. The way the actors moved was a joy to behold. It is a very moving play, which is also very funny in some places. And it did live up to the book in almost every way.
Performances at the National Theatre are sold out.
For more details of the live screenings go to www.nationaltheatre.org.uk For more details of what's on at Aylesbury go to www.atgtickets.com/aylesbury
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