THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME Apollo Theatre

Christopher, a 15-year-old with Asperger Syndrome, has serious behavioural problems and attends a school for pupils with special needs. His parents find it very hard to cope. He has a photographic memory and is brilliant at mathematics. He is taking his A level and expects to get an A star. When I heard the National Theatre was going to stage Mark Haddon’s prize-winning best-seller, I wondered how on earth they were going to do justice to a very funny, very sad and deeply sympathetic novel, which is told in the first person and everything is seen through the boy’s eyes? The answer is that they have done it so extraordinarily well that they will, no doubt, have another international hit on their hands to follow War Horse. Simon Stephens is the adaptor and Marianne Elliott is the director. The action takes place in a black box, which is designed by Bunny Christie and lit by Paule Constable. The all-important video design is by Finn Ross. The mime – dynamic, agile, gymnastic, airborne, walking-on-walls – is created by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett and often magical. There is a brilliant performance by Luke Treadaway as Christopher, who is wonderfully arrogant and vulnerable at the same time. It’s an exhausting role, physically and mentally; he is on stage all the time. His final affirmation – “I can do anything” – which is left hanging in the air is most moving. There is also valuable support from Niamh Cusack as his compassionate teacher and Sean Gleeson as his guilt-ridden dad. Don’t miss Treadway’s tour de force in the epilogue after the curtain-calls. The production would be a great treat for a mature teenager.