National Theatre’s smash hit staging of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time makes Bath debut

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time received seven Olivier Awards in 2013, including Best New Play, Best Director, Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design. The New York production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was the recipient of five prestigious Tony Awards, including Best New Play. It continues to play in the West End and on Broadway, as well as visiting Bath on its first ever nationwide tour.

The show tells the story of fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone, who has an extraordinary brain - exceptional at maths while ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road; he detests being touched and distrusts strangers. When Christopher falls under suspicion of killing Mrs Shears’ dog, he tries to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington, recording each fact in a book. But his detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a journey that upturns his world.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is directed by Marianne Elliott, who co-directed the National Theatre’s record-breaking production of War Horse. The central role of Christopher is played by Joshua Jenkins with Geraldine Alexander as his teacher Siobhan and Stuart Laing as his father, Ed.

Talking about adapting Mark Haddon’s novel for the stage, Playwright Simon Stephens said: "It was a really joyful experience. I knew two things in adapting the play. I knew that the key to it was the relationship between Christopher and his teacher. Although it’s not that central in the novel, what struck me was that everybody in life has a favourite teacher. Even people who hated school, even people who found school a miserable experience, had one teacher who they loved more than others and thought got them in a way that other teachers didn’t. I knew that if I could get that relationship right, then we could create an evening in the theatre that people could recognise themselves in.

"The other thing that I knew was that Marianne Elliott had to direct it. I think she’s a visionary director, I think she’s a director of extraordinary imagination, but she’s also a very democratic director. This can’t be a piece of theatre that alienates people. It has to be a piece of theatre that you can come to if you’re 10 years old or if you’re 90 years old. It needs to appeal to people that have very high art taste in theatre, but also it’s got to be a family night out, and I thought that Marianne could release that really beautifully and really perfectly. Everybody working on it, the entire creative team, were united in wanting to tell Christopher’s story as honestly and properly as possible."

"All I ever wanted to do was to make Mark Haddon happy. He came to see rehearsals and the previews and the show at the National and in the West End and Broadway and he fell back in love with Curious Incident all over again. That makes me as proud as anything."

Author Mark Haddon himself added: ‘When I wrote Curious Incident I was absolutely convinced that it couldn’t be adapted for film or stage. The novel is one person’s very insulated and sometimes profoundly mistaken view of the world. We’re stuck inside Christopher’s head from cover to cover.

"We see the world the way he sees the world. And there’s the problem. Or so it seemed to me. Theatre is radically third person. You can infer what people are thinking but you can do so only from what they say and what they do. I simply couldn’t imagine how Christopher’s story could be told with any integrity in this way. Simon’s genius was to recognise that I was completely and utterly wrong."

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time tours to the Theatre Royal Bath from Tuesday 20 to Saturday 31 October. Very limited advance tickets are now available on 01225 448844 or online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk

Limited Standby Tickets and Standing Places will go on sale daily during the run.