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Posted on: February 3rd 2022
YEAR 9 CURIOUS INCIDENT TRIP AND READING CHALLENGE
On Thursday 9th December 2021, a group of Year 9 students went to the Wembley Park Theatre to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. Like the protagonist, Christopher Boone, our group and Mr Rance got the train to Wembley to see the adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel, which was directed by Marianne Elliot. After we saw the production, we all completed a reading challenge and received a copy of the novel to read over the Christmas holidays. The novel is about a boy named Christopher who has autism and you see the world through his eyes. The novel explores the themes of family, honesty and trust through the lens of a murder mystery.
A dog belonging to Christopher’s neighbour, Mrs Sheers, is found dead on the lawn and Christopher is fixated on how the dog died and who is responsible. Whilst his father repeatedly tells him not to investigate the incident, Christopher does so anyway, and eventually assaults a police officer who gives him a caution, unknowing that he sees the world differently and there are some things that he finds uncomfortable. Christopher knocks on many doors trying to find the culprit, whilst writing his own novel about his investigation. He then discovers that, not only had his father murdered the dog in a jealous rage due to his mother leaving him for Mr Sheers, but his mother is not actually dead as his father had said. This leads to Christopher travelling to London to knock on one final door: his mother’s. Christopher feels safer with his mother, and eventually they return home and Christopher begins to repair his relationship with his father, all whilst sitting his A-Level Maths exam a year early (and he gets an A*!).
My favourite part of the play and the novel is when Christopher finds out that he got an A* in his maths exam as this shows that anything is possible if you work hard enough, no matter how you experience the world. At the end of the play, Christopher asks the audience to stay behind and he shows them how he solved the most difficult question on the maths paper with lots of flashing lights and sounds – it was really exciting.
I would highly recommend seeing the production and reading the novel as I enjoyed learning about how people with autism see our world and becoming more aware of some of the challenges they might face; it gave all of us an idea about the different viewpoints of others.
Samuel 9BCG
