The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night
Written by	Simon Stephens (play) Mark Haddon (novel)
Characters	Christopher John Francis Boone (15-year-old maths-genius detective); Ed Boone (father); Judy Boone (mother); Siobhan (school mentor); Roger and Eileen Shears (neighbours); Mrs. Alexander (neighbour); Toby (Christopher's pet rat); Wellington (Mrs Shears' dog)
Date premiered	2 August 2012 (2012-08-02)[1]
Place premiered	Royal National Theatre[1]
Original language	English
Subject	Autism spectrum, Family drama, Crime fiction
Genre	Drama/Mystery
Setting	Swindon and London

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a play by Simon Stephens based on the novel of the same name by Mark Haddon. During its premiere run, the play tied the record for winning the most Olivier Awards (seven), including Best New Play at the 2013 ceremony (this record was surpassed by Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in 2017 with nine wins). The play is a National Theatre Production, in association with Frantic Assembly, who specialised in the movement direction. ^[2]

The play premiered on 2 August 2012 in the Cottesloe Theatre at the Royal National Theatre in London before transferring to the Apollo Theatre in the West End on 12 March 2013. It won seven Olivier Awards in 2013 (including Best New Play), at the time equaling the record with Matilda the Musical in 2012, before both were surpassed by Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in 2017 with nine awards. During a performance on 19 December 2013, the ceiling of the Apollo Theatre collapsed causing the production to close. It reopened on 9 July 2014 at the Gielgud Theatre. The play closed at the Gielgud on 3 June 2017.

The Broadway production debuted at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on 5 October 2014 and closed on 4 September 2016. It won the 2015 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, 2015 Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding New Broadway Play, the 2015 Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play, and the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play.

Mickey Rowe was the first openly autistic actor to play Christopher Boone in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.^[3][4] He documented this experience in the book Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor's Journey to Broadway's Biggest Stage.^[5]

The story concerns a mystery surrounding the death of a neighbour's dog that is investigated by young Christopher Boone, who is autistic, and his relationships with his parents and school mentor. The play reworked the source material by changing its voice and presenting the story as a play-within-a-play. The play has received a generally warm reception, with most critics impressed by its ability to convey the point of view of the young protagonist and the compassion of his school mentor. Critics also generally spoke highly of the visual effects employed during the show.^[6]

Characters

• Christopher John Francis Boone: the 15-year-old protagonist
• Mr. Ed Boone: Christopher's father, a boiler engineer.
• Mrs. Judy Boone: Christopher's mother.
• Siobhan: Christopher's para-professional and mentor at school. Also acts as the play's narrator.
• Voice One: The actor in this role also plays:
  • Mrs. Shears: Christopher's neighbour.
  • Mrs. Gascoyne: the head of Christopher's school.
  • Woman on Train
  • Shopkeeper
• Voice Two: The actor in this role also plays:
  • Roger Shears: Mrs Shear's ex-husband.
  • Mr. Wise: one of Christopher's neighbours.
  • Duty Sergeant
  • Man behind Counter
  • Drunk One
• Voice Three: The actor in this role also plays:
  • A Policeman
  • Mr. Thompson: one of Christopher's neighbours
  • London Policeman
  • Man with Socks
  • Drunk Two
• Voice Four: The actor in this role also plays:
  • Reverend Peters: a priest and teacher at Christopher's school.
  • Uncle Terry: Christopher's uncle
  • Station Policeman
  • Station Guard
• Voice Five: The actor in this role also plays:
  • No. 37
  • Lady in Street
  • Information
  • Punk Girl
• Voice Six: The actor in this role also plays:
  • Mrs. Alexander: An old lady, one of Christopher's neighbours.
  • Posh Woman
• Toby: Christopher's pet rat, usually played by a real rat in a ball.

Plot

The play involves a significant reworking of the source material. Rather than present the story in the first-person narrative as the original novel did, the play is presented as a reading of Boone's own writing, read aloud in segments by his teacher.^[7][8] The result is that the play is presented as a play-within-a-play.^[9]

Set in Swindon and London,^[10] the story concerns 15-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone, a mathematical genius with an autism spectrum disorder, although his condition is never specified in the play.^[11] The titular curious incident is the mystery surrounding the death of Wellington, his neighbor Mrs. Shears’ poodle, after Christopher finds the dog speared with a garden fork.^[11]

While trying to discover who killed Wellington, he encounters resistance from many neighbours, but mostly from his widowed father, Ed. Christopher argues to himself that many rules are made to be broken, so he continues to search for an answer. During his investigation, Christopher happens across letters from his mother, Judy, dated after her alleged death. Ed admits that Judy is alive and living in London with their neighbor with whom she had an affair; he had fabricated the story about her passing away from a heart attack two years prior. He also admits that he killed Wellington in a fit of fury after an argument with Mrs. Shears.

Distraught and fearing for his life, Christopher heads to London to find and live with his mother, traveling by himself for the first time in his life. He finds the journey overstimulating and stressful, but eventually succeeds and is welcomed by his mother. His ambitions lead him back to Swindon, where he wants to sit an A Level mathematics exam. Christopher achieves the best possible result and gradually reconciles with his father.

In a short scene after the curtain call, Christopher reappears to brilliantly solve his "favourite question" from the mathematics exam.

Productions

Country	Theatre	Opening Date	Closing Date	Details
GBR	Royal National Theatre, London	2 August 2012	27 October 2012	Premiere
	Apollo Theatre, West End	12 March 2013	19 December 2013	West End Premiere
MEX	Teatro de los Insurgentes, Mexico City	24 October 2013	4 January 2015	International Premiere
ISR	Beit Lessin Theater, Tel Aviv	2014
HUN	Centrál Theatre, Budapest	8 March 2014		Hungarian Premiere
JPN	Setagaya Public Theater, Tokyo	4 April 2014	20 April 2014	Japanese Premiere[12][13]
GBR	Gielgud Theatre, West End	9 July 2014	3 June 2017	West End Re-Opening
USA	Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway	5 October 2014	4 September 2016	Broadway Premiere
KOR	Kwanglim Art Center BBCH Hall, Seoul	27 November 2015	31 January 2016	Korean Premiere
CAN	Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, Alberta	22 September 2016	12 November 2016	Canadian Premiere
BEL	Le Moderne Théâtre, Liège	28 April 2017	13 May 2017	Belgian Premiere
AUS	Playhouse, Arts Centre, Melbourne	11 January 2018	25 February 2018	Australian Premiere & Tour
	Concert Hall, QPAC, Brisbane	12 June 2018	24 June 2018	Australian Tour
	Canberra Theatre, Canberra	27 June 2018	1 July 2018
	Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney	4 July 2018	28 July 2018
	Adelaide Entertainment Centre Theatre, Adelaide	31 July 2018	4 August 2018
	His Majesty's Theatre, Perth	8 August 2018	19 August 2018
SPA	Teatro Marquina, Madrid	5 September 2018	TBA
ZA	Theatre on the Bay, Cape Town	25 September 2018	3 November 2018	South African Premiere & Tour
	Pieter Toerien Montecasino Theatre and Studio	7 November 2018	2 December 2018	South African Tour
GBR	Piccadilly Theatre, West End	29 November 2018	27 April 2019	West End revival

National Theatre

Adapted by Simon Stephens and directed by Marianne Elliott,^[14] the show premièred at the Royal National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre on 2 August 2012.^[1] The performance there was played in the round.^[15] The production starred Luke Treadaway as Christopher, Niamh Cusack as his inspirational teacher Siobhan, Nicola Walker as his mother Judy, Paul Ritter as his father Ed and Una Stubbs as Mrs. Alexander.^[16] The production, which ran until late October 2012, was broadcast live to cinemas worldwide on Thursday 6 September 2012 through the National Theatre Live programme.^[17]

West End

The show transferred to the West End's Apollo Theatre in March 2013.^[18] Performances began on 1 March, with an official opening on 12 March. Seán Gleeson and Holly Aird joined the cast as Christopher's parents.^[19]

On 19 December 2013, during a performance, part of the Apollo Theatre's roof collapsed, injuring nearly 80 people.^[20] As a result, all further performances were cancelled^[21][22] and a new theatre was sought.^[23] The Apollo's balcony required extensive repairs.^[24][25] In February 2014, the producers staged 8 free lunchtime performances for audiences from 14 secondary schools at the Stratford Old Town Hall.^[15] The production finally re-opened at the nearby Gielgud Theatre, beginning previews on 24 June 2014, with its official opening night on 9 July.^[26]

The West End production closed on 3 June 2017, after playing over 1,600 performances.^[27]

The production returned to the West End at the Piccadilly Theatre from 29 November 2018 (with an official opening night on 11 December) for a limited run until 27 April 2019.^[28]

Broadway

The play opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on 5 October 2014, after beginning previews on 10 September.^[29] It is again produced by the Royal National Theatre^[30] and directed by Elliott.^[31] The original Broadway cast included Alex Sharp (in his first professional role ever) as Christopher,^[32] Enid Graham as his mother Judy, Ian Barford as his father Ed, and Francesca Faridany as Siobhan.^[33] The production is choreographed by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett.^[34]

The Broadway production closed on 4 September 2016 after 800 performances.^[35][36]

UK Tours

The first UK and Ireland tour of the production began in December 2014 at the Lowry Theatre in Salford before completing a 32-city tour across the UK and Ireland.^[37]

A second UK and Ireland tour began in Salford in January 2017 and ran through to September 2017.^[38][39]

A third UK tour was set to begin in Salford in September 2020 and run until March 2021, with a seven-week run at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in Wembley, London from November 2020 through to January 2021.^[40] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was delayed and began officially at the Troubador Wembley Park Theatre from 20 November 2021 to 9 January 2022 before touring until May 2022.

US tour

The first US national tour of the production began on 27 September 2016 at the Auditorium Theatre in Rochester, New York and closed in September 2017 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, in Costa Mesa, California.^[41]

International tour

The National Theatre opened its first international company in Amsterdam on 22 August 2017 with Joshua Jenkins (with Sam Newton and Kaffe Keating as alternatives at certain performances) as Christopher Boone, Julie Hale as Siobhan, Stuart Laing as Ed and Emma Beattie as Judy. Local producers then brought the production to Toronto, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai. Following the success of the Melbourne run, the same production began a national tour of Australia detailed below.

Australian tour

The Australian premiere of the play took place at the Playhouse, Arts Centre in Melbourne as part of the first international tour.^[42] Following the success of the Melbourne season, the same production was announced to return to Australia on a national tour to the remaining major cities: Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. The tour commenced on 12 June 2018 and will conclude on 19 August 2018.^[43] This is the original London production, produced by the National Theatre in partnership with Lunchbox Productions.

Mexico

Before it opened on Broadway, it premiered in Mexico in 2013 with the name "El Curioso Incidente del Perro a Medianoche", thus becoming the first international production of the play. Luis Gerardo Méndez played the main character, alternating with Alfonso Dosal. The play ran in Mexico until 2015.^[44] This was not the same production as the original UK production.

Seoul

The third international production of the play played at the Kwanglim Art Center in Seoul, South Korea. Preview shows with the first-ever all Korean cast began on 27 November 2015, and ran until 31 January 2016.^[45] It is important to note this is not the same production as the original UK production.

South Africa

The South African premiere of the play took place in Cape Town, with a transfer to Johannesburg following the initial run. This was a new staging of the play by Paul Warwick-Griffin. The production team also included Gareth Hewitt Williams (lighting design), Tina Driedijk (scenic and costume design), and Charl-Johan Lingenfelder (original music and soundscapes).^[46]

Historical casting

The following tables show the casts of the principal original productions:

* - denotes the actor performing at certain performances

Notable replacements at the Apollo included Rakie Ayola as Siobhan, Amanda Drew as Judy and Daniel Casey as Roger Shears.^[52] On 13 September 2015 several members of the original Broadway cast performed their last show and were replaced on 15 September with a new cast.^[53][54][55] For its debut, the Korean production double- or triple-cast almost all of the main characters' roles.^[51][56]

Original London Creative Team

The London production has retained the same creative team since 2012.

Awards and nominations

The nominations for the 2013 Laurence Olivier Awards, which recognise excellence in professional productions staged in London, were announced on 26 March 2013. The production secured the most nominations with eight, including Best New Play, Best Director (Elliott), Best Actor (Treadaway), Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and other categories including Best Set Design, Best Lighting Design, Best Sound Design and Best Choreographer.^[57] The production eventually won seven Olivier awards,^[58] thereby equalling Matilda the Musical's record win total in 2012.^[59][60] The play was also acclaimed with the Best New Play on 17 February 2013 at the Whatsonstage Awards.^[61]

The Play also earned 6 Tony Award nominations in 2015, winning 5, the most of any play that year.

West End production

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