When D219 schools shut down on Feb. 12 and Feb. 14 due to snow and a water main break, respectively, the cast of Niles North’s next play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time had to accommodate for lost rehearsal time. Though the play was postponed by a week to a new date of Feb. 27-28, the ensemble persevered bringing the novel-turned-play into life.
Director Megan Baskin first saw The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time on a New York City trip with her theatre students in 2016 and was immediately captivated by the portrayal of the main character Christopher, who is coded as being on the Autism spectrum.
“Every single character in the show deals with messy, complicated things, and I think that that is what all of us experience,” Baskin said. “And so to me that idea, there’s so much humanity and connection. I think that’s a really beautiful story that can and should be told.”
The play, based on Mark Hadon’s 2003 novel, tells the story of a 15-year-old math genius Christopher. One night, Christopher finds his neighbor’s dog stabbed to death. Despite resistance from his neighbors and father, Christopher investigates the dog’s death, and along the way, uncovers mysteries from his own family.
Senior Ella Sorkin plays a leading role in the cast and describes the interesting storytelling method of the show. The play is formatted as a play-within-a-play, as Sorkin’s character reads from Christopher’s novel as narration.
“I get to both play [Christopher’s] teacher in his real life, but I also get to be sort of the narrator and reading from his book as the action is happening in the play,” Sorkin said. “And so it was sort of tricky to figure out what information in [Christopher’s] book was new to me versus what I already know, and just figuring out what reactions to his writing make the most sense with the story.”
Anyone who is somewhat acquainted with theatre knows the stress and hard work of arguably the most important week of production: Tech Week. Tech Week includes six-hour rehearsals on school nights to get the technical elements– sound, lights, costumes, makeup– perfect for the long-awaited show. The tech in this plays a particularly important role as it represents the way Christopher’s mind works.
“The idea is that there’s organized chaos,” Baskin said. “And there’s a lot of organized chaos in the world. As our main character deals with how he organizes his brain and his mind, there’s so much chaos in and around that, and something that I think is pretty cool about the set is that it is– I’m gonna use the word like deconstructed right to help show how this is someone’s mind that is a little bit deconstructed– The way that they organize things is different.”
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time will take place on Feb. 27 at 10am and 4pm, and on Feb. 28 at 4pm and 7:30pm. Tickets are available here.
