Brighton Year-Round 2026

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Birmingham Rep and Melting Pot with ATG

Genre: Adaptation, Comedic, Contemporary, Drama, Mainstream Theatre, Neurodiverse, Puppetry, Theatre

Venue: Theatre Royal, Brighton

Festival: Brighton Year-Round

Low Down

Review

“The ticket office?” A 15-year-old neurodivergent girl doesn’t understand exactly what buying a ticket entails, much less the steps to finding a particular address by train. Yet she’s about to try for an A-star A level Mathematics and can explain dizzying algebraic steps. It should be a terrifying moment, though is it? One of the most important adaptations of recent times finally hits Theatre Royal, Brighton. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon’s 2003 novel adapted in 2012 by Simon Stephens, arrives in a new production directed by Ned Bennett, playing till October 3^rd.

This fresh two-hour 15 adaptation chooses to gender-swap a girl for the original boy, and the show has been updated to now. There’s immense value in pointing up non-specific autism as experienced by girls, under-diagnosed till recently: often presenting differently, less easy to spot and often diagnosed in later adulthood. A fine interview with an expert shows how seriously this has been undertaken.

Though some recognizable traits attend Chris, it’s important to emphasise just how individual hers and any condition is: and how this production too chooses to break out of “the spectrum” through a spectrum.

Chris Boone is portrayed here by Alex Keenan with some fully recognisable features: eyes averted, a visceral reaction to being touched, the sheer impact of being discombobulated by small things. On matinees Imi Price alternates, so intense is the performance. Keenan, making a stand-out stage debut, trembles with an imploding world and suddenly expands – literally breathes out – as stars exhale from her consciousness. Each time she does this, you see the world expand a little, and the mysteries beyond Chris’s own mindset become ours briefly.

There are more nuanced realisations to be had but this production is all about turning up experiential volume. Keenan brings an amplified Chris whose need for unravelling both a brutal killing and an apparent death of a mother is huge, balanced with the need to realise herself (like any teen), and that all-important exam.

Joe McFadden as the harassed father Ed Boone brings a performance that anchors the show in adult pain, duplicity and remorse. Judy his wife (Charlie Brooks) has run off from Wiltshire where they live to London with a lover (Matthew Bulgo’s querulous Ed Shears, also a sympathetic Duty Sergeant). It’s partly perhaps to escape her feelings of inadequacy as Chris’s mother, and partly as she feels excluded and unloved. This isn’t explored but Brooks makes an impression as genuinely loving and overwhelmed, though with resolve when most needed. McFadden though is the troubled anchor: conflicted, not telling the truth about the two greatest mysteries of the show: who killed the dog Wellington and what happened to Judy, whom Chris has been told has died. There’s rippling anguish and truth in his performance.

Bridgette Amofah’s sympathetic teacher Siobhan almost seems another Chris, initially amplifying Chris’s thoughts; though you quickly realise she’s not an echo-chamber. Against the fizzy production Amofah’s empathic role has to become occasionally strident just to get heard. Later she can settle into being more the one person who truly gets Chris, though she’s given little space to deliver the understated joy and warmth this role asks.

The ensemble’s excellent: Tom Clegg’s main role as the Station Policeman driven out of his comfort zone is heartwarming. There’s good work too from Carla Garrett’s mouthy Punk Girl, Jerone Marsh-Reid’s Mr Thompson and the London Policeman dealing with a “domestic”. Mrs Alexander you feel gets short shrift from Chris, a friendship that should have happened, played with understated hurt by Alex Murdoch. Sera Mustafa makes most impression as t he head-teacher Mrs Gascoyne and Robert Penny snorts amused exasperation as a Station Guard.

Eleanor Bull’s design including a large upstage ledge, is lit by Laura Deward in swathes of bright and shadow.  Bull’s set is remarkably primary-coloured, and very different to the subdued graphic wonders the original is famed for. There’s been much rethinking and the whole tour seems designed with a nod to education, inclusivity and on occasion a wink to the way neurotypical people see neurodivergence. There’s levels of irony some will get, though perhaps not some of the many school-age people in the audience. The second act explodes with a net protecting the nuclear big-bang of boppy yellow balls (like Olivia in Twelfth Night, Chris abhors yellow), scooped up and collected. There’s an infestation of giant gnomes (why?) and other comic up-scalings. It’s a wildly inventive set, and enormous fun: though sometimes intention and narrative seem slightly skew.

It’s certainly amplified by Giles Thomas’ sound design and composition. Hayley Egan’s video design restores some of the original pristine magic of the first production (those famed images): everything though is nudged to Play School graphics, sometimes to comic effect. I do wonder though at the imaged recession of Chris’s mind: from its sophisticated algebraic wonder (honoured in the original) to a more primary-school imagery. There’s a degree of condescension here that doesn’t quite sit. Otherwise the video storytelling’s clear. Everything from Swiss army knives to bits of wood to tampons are bigged up to note both difference and recognition when you go through someone’s pockets (as the police do at one point). The familiar and strange echoes what neurotypical people might experience – or think they experience – with Chris.  Jennifer Jackson’s movement is kinetic and boppy, but includes brief stillness. Matt Hutchinson’s puppets – Toby the rat – sparkle across scenes like a sugar-rush in a dreary rail station. A scampering metaphor.

We need such moments of repose and naturalism though. The challenge with this production is that Bennett and his team have opted not to craft a slightly pale imitation of the stunning original. It’s also clearly tipped towards access and indeed education; and enjoys serious intent beneath the bright-eyed cheer. Much of what one feels can be expressed is muted though: the near tragedy of Chris’s trek through to London, the fright and epic courage doesn’t quite come across.

Others have seen previous productions and have either loved or been very disappointed with this version. Coming fresh and strictly without that baggage, I  feel the Brighton leg at the moment hasn’t quite settled. The production can overwhelm the story, but some actors save it. Nevertheless if you’ve not seen Curious Incident, this is still a must-see.

Casting Director Abby Galvin CDG, Production Manager Tom Kingdom For Productions Solutions Group, Associate Director Anastasia  Osei-Kuffour, Associate Designer Olivia Walers, Props Supervisor Eve Hawes for Props by Eve, Costume Supervisors Isobel Pellow, Debbie Williams, Vocal Coach Aundrea Fudge, Fight Director Masie Carter for MC_Combat.

CSM Grace Duckerin, DSM Fran Kirchholtes, ASM Kate Buxton, LX/Video 1 Paul Coxon, Sound 1 Ben Thomas, Head of Wardrobe Josephine Lewis, LX/Video 2 Jordan Williams, Tech Swing Fi Britton. Photo Credit: Johan Persson.

Published October 1, 2026 by Simon Jenner