On Friday afternoon, I attended the UMW production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, a play that centers around a disabled character, Christopher. The beginning of the play starts out with a cruel murder of a neighbor’s dog, and the plot surrounds Christopher’s detective work to see who the killer is, which reveals truths about his own lie. The depiction of Christopher was an interesting one- the play and book is infamous for it’s relatively inclusive motifs, it has settings of over-stimulations and tries to explain how a person with autism may think. The actor who played Christopher, however, did not have autism. I found this to be an interesting choice. We have discussed in the class that an able bodied person should not act as a disabled person, and here it happens on our own turf.
One thought on “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hi Lily! I also attended the play (on Wednesday) and I also noticed and appreciated how the play tried to explain how a person with autism might think, as you said. However, I want to note that while I don’t know them very well, it is very possible that the actor who played Christopher is on the autism spectrum so I don’t like to jump to conclusions about representation without knowing the full story.