Random West End Show and Book Review - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

So my first west end show and book review this year is both about a boy who I can only describe as someone who has an autistic spectrum condition among other problems which personally, I can relate to. He see's life and the world around from a completely different perspective to what other people would see and that in many ways, makes people like him, see things differently to others. Both the book and the show have received critical acclaim and if I'm being honest, I actually like them both to. So with that said, let's look at the two shall we:



Book

Our story begins with exactly what the book title says, an incident about a dog which just so happens to take place in the night time and has a boy showing curiosity about it. Our main character called Christopher John Francis Boone (but for the sake of time, I'm just going to call him Chris), a fifteen year old with an autistic spectrum condition, goes to the police station before being taken home by his father. Because of this incident of a dog called Wellington, he decides to do detective work to investigate the matters, despite his father's pleas to not go into such things. However as we soon find out, there is more to this incident that meets the eye and Chris will have to step out of his comfort zone to do something that no child at his age would want to do. Now the way the book is laid out is that everything is told from the perspective of Chris who as the words in the book will show, does very much explain the fact about his AS condition without the need to go into it and I have never in a million years, read a book quite like this and I actually liked it. As I said previously, I can relate to someone like Chris and this book can sum up just how the autistic spectrum works without any explanation of it or the like. 10/10

Show

So much like with the book, the show is unlike anything that I have seen before. Although really it is called a play despite being shown in the West End. The show's story is the same as the book where everything is told from Chris's perspective (who by the way is played by Graham Butler in the one I saw) and of all the shows I've seen, this one didn't need any form of stage sets or anything. It was mostly green screen and interactive stuff and I liked it. Its a very creative show that I think could very well work as a film and it just blew my mind how little the show had in the way of props and set designs and it mostly being all green screen and all that. I liked it very much just as I liked the book too. 10/10