REVIEW: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at Mayflower Theatre, Southampton

That Britain produces the finest stage actors in the world is evidenced by this National Theatre production calling in at Southampton.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at Mayflower Theatre, Southampton. Picture: Brinkhoff MögenburgThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at Mayflower Theatre, Southampton. Picture: Brinkhoff Mögenburg
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at Mayflower Theatre, Southampton. Picture: Brinkhoff Mögenburg

Not one of the ensemble cast of 14 would you recognise, but not one of them would you wish to miss.

Tightly choreographed and slickly directed, it is particularly effective in the sequence showing Christopher – cursed and/or gifted with Asperger Syndrome – on his journey to London.

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Leading the ensemble as Christopher, Scott Reid astonishes in – well – just about everything he does on the stage.

His delivery of the dialogue, his movement, even in one particularly prolonged pause in which you can hear every thought in his head. His sheer focus and concentration as he puts a train-set together is a thing of beauty.

As his teacher Siobhan, Lucianne McEvoy, acts as an in-road for us into Christopher’s thinking. She questions, encourages, coaxes and gifts us a kind of understanding.

Christopher’s dysfunctional parents – played by David Michaels and Emma Beattie – struggle to maintain a kind of normality for their son in the shadow of their spectacularly-failed relationship.

It’s often difficult to witness – and all power to them for that. Get a ticket if you can.

Until Saturday.