THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTIME
Bridewell Theatre
★★★★
“a memorable production which deserves its own accolades for retelling a world-famous play”
This fresh interpretation by Sedos of the multi-award-winning play, that premiered in 2012 at the National Theatre, is playing for just five days. I can only say ‘Catch it’. Whether you have read Mark Haddon’s 2003 novel, or seen the original play – which takes a different viewpoint on the story – this is a sparkling version, nuanced for an audience with greater understanding (and, one hopes, acceptance) of neurodiversity than would have been the case 14 years ago.
Sedos (the Stock Exchange Dramatic and Operatic Society) is an amateur company with professional standards of work. Founded in 1905 it is now a registered charity producing five to 10 shows a year. Diversity and inclusivity are its bywords. Anyone can audition for a show and its commitment to attracting members (as well as audiences) who reflect London’s diversity is what accounts for the stellar cast on stage in this show with, most notably, Elspeth Reid performing as Christopher, whose coming-of-age journey through challenge to independence is at the heart of this story.
The play is framed as if Christopher’s mentor/teacher, Siobhan (Elsa Gregori), is reading aloud the book he’s written about the events at its heart – starting with the killing of a neighbour’s dog in the night. The narrative switches between related memory and enacted scenes. Christopher becomes detective, in order to find out who committed this crime, and, in doing so, uncovers other events in the past that rock his present world.
Throughout, a Greek-style chorus highlights the emotional action, becoming part of a static set or moving as an expressive mechanism. Flow and sound give a three dimensional beauty to Christopher’s struggles and achievement, while projection onto a geometric background and a grid-like stage, is used to represent Christopher’s internal experience of the world — the way patterns, numbers, and order help him manage overwhelming sensory input.
Culturally, ‘The Curious Incident’ was significant for putting neurodivergent experience at the centre of mainstream theatre without softening or sentimentalising it. Here Director Alice Bennett takes it one step further, admitting her ‘gently antagonistic’ relationship with the text and determination to recreate a story in line with, as she says: “the ‘social model’ of disability that frames people as being disabled not by their impairments but by a society that does not accommodate them”.
The individual members of cast are strong. Matt Tylianakis plays Christopher’s father Ed as a caring man descending into anger at times as a result of frustration. Sarah Berryman is Judy, the mother, who could not cope and left the family, to make good later. Their characters are on a journey too and their range as actors is clearly visible. All the rest are playing the multiple characters encountered by Christopher along the way and the switches are handled with distinction and ease.
In the creative team, the greatest tribute must go to Emma Bowker, movement director and director, who handles the choreography of the 12-strong chorus with quite extraordinary fluidity. In a highly complicated movement structure not a single step was misplaced. Ollie Jones composed the striking soundscape which supported the whole.
In summary, this is a memorable production which deserves its own accolades for retelling a world-famous play about autism (although never specifically labelled as such). It is designed to takes the conversation about neurodivergence one step further. In that it is overwhelmingly successful.
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTIME
Bridewell Theatre
Reviewed on 14th July 2026
by Louise Sibley
Photography by Liz Heinrichs
