In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel, Christopher Boone discovers a neighborhood dog has been killed, and is determined to find the murderer. While sleuthing, he happens upon other secrets and lies that seem to challenge his very existence. As someone on the autism spectrum, Christopher’s journey to the truth – both literally and figuratively – is a difficult, but ultimately successful, one. The production is being presented by the Department of Theatre and Music Studies at SUNY Brockport, opening on Friday, December 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the Tower Fine Arts Center, 180 Holley Street. Tickets are $17/general, $12/senior citizens, Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff, and $9/students. They are available at http://www.fineartstix.brockport.edu, at the Tower Box Office, or by phone at 585-395-2787.
As part of the educational alliance between the Department and Geva Theatre Center, the play is being directed by Rebecca Etzine, this year’s Geva Directing Fellow. She is “so grateful that Geva has made it possible for me to come up to Rochester to direct Curious Incident, a bucket list play for me.”
Portraying Christopher’s autism requires a delicate hand on the parts of both the director and the actor portraying him. Though auditions did not turn up an actor on the spectrum, according to Etzine, Theo Guth, who was cast in the role, “is an inclusive education major with a deep and nuanced understanding of autism. One of the reasons why I cast Theo was because he didn’t play the autism, he just played Christopher.” Several things bring comfort to Christopher, one of them being his proficiency with mathematics, which has a presence throughout the play. In an ironic twist, Etzine has dyscalculia, a type of numeric dyslexia. She feels that her “learning differences are nowhere near as challenging as autism, but they have helped me empathize with some of Christopher’s struggles. I do see the poetry and creativity in mathematics and that’s what is influencing my direction of this play. Christopher sees beauty in mathematical patterns along with the order he so desperately craves. This inspired the geometric nature of the set design and the use of number patterns in the projections.”
During her career, Etzine has taught and directed in middle and high school settings, as well as in higher education. She enjoys working with her collegiate casts. “They refuel my tank,” she admits.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time will be performed on December 1, 2, 7, 8, and 9, at 7:30 p.m. There is also an ASL-interpreted matinee performance on Sunday, December 3, at 2 p.m.
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