The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is the current Acme Theatre Company Production and playing from January 3rd through 12th, 2025, at the “gloriously heated Veterans Memorial Theatre”! I read the book many years ago and I could not imagine how it would translate to a play. In the years since I read the book, it was rewritten to become a play. The play opened in London on August 2, 2012 at the Cottesloe Theatre. It then moved to the Apollo Theatre in the West End on March 12, 2013.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time opened on Broadway on October 5, 2014 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Previews for the play began on September 10, 2014 and closed on September 4, 2016 after 800 performances.
Now Acme Theatre Company asks us to “Join Christopher, a brilliant young man who decides to investigate a neighborhood tragedy, as his detective work takes him on a deeply personal quest that upturns his world.”
Set in Swindon and London,[11] 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.[12] 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.[12]
While trying to discover who killed Wellington, he encounters resistance from many neighbors, 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 “favorite question” from the mathematics exam.
At the theatre I met a friend who missed the Broadway production and wanted to see the play. She commented that, “I think it is amazing that these young people can work so hard on this production. It is also a story about young people struggling so much, so it must resonate with them personally. So glad we went.” If you go you, too, will be glad.
With Nico Novick as the most convincing Christopher you are likely to see, and others equally convincing and engaging, that included: Gillian Cubbage as Siobhan, Ash Miller as Ed and others, Magdalena Knettle as Judy and others, Mattias Waggoner as Mr. Shears and others, Aloe Eppley as Eileen Shears and Others, Josh Gleason as Mr. Alexander and others, Vivienne Jacobs as Mrs. Gascoyne and others and Sadie Arellano-Caleron as Sandy, you will have a unique experience. Kudos to Nico for getting it right- the speech, the language, the body movement, the overload. The program thanks many but Dan Renkin’s guidance through the Journey of fight choreography was especially noteworthy in some unpleasant and important scenes.
The staging, lighting and props (people as props) were creative and inventive and effectively “set the stage” for the story. Because this is a topic that deals with differences it presents a conundrum. To bring the audience into Christopher’s world we experience loud noise. Intense lights, a feeling of confusion and overwhelm. However, there is a wish to bring this story so well presented to individuals like Christopher or others who have differences. In order for an audience of neurodivergent individuals to handle the play the overload needs to be reduced. I’m not sure how this will be resolved but I have complete confidence that Acme Theatre Company will find a way to do this.
Acme was founded in 1980 by Davis High School English teacher, Dave Burmester, and a group of eager teenagers. The company’s first production Bare Stage/Blue Jeans was a simple performance of a series of one-acts on a bare stage. Two years later, the company put on the first ¨Free Comedy in the Park¨ and it has since become an annual tradition. The very next summer, Acme members began teaching summer drama classes for elementary and junior high school students in which the company members passed on their expertise to younger children.
In 2005, Dave called together the Invisible Council of Elders (ICE) to discuss the company’s future.
In 2008, Dave and Libby Burmester stepped down from their respective roles of Artistic and Managing Director, and ICE became the elected non-profit board for the company. Since 2008, Acme alumna Emily Henderson has served as the company’s Artistic Director.
Photos are by Brian Gleason
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