THIS is the third review on the Fine Times Recorder for Simon Stephens’ stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s best-selling book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The first two productions were at Bath in 2015 and 2017, both on professional tours of the UK after sell-out seasons in London.

This review is of an amateur production at Strode Theatre in Street, which ran from 18th to 21st March 2026 – and this production captured the drama, humanity, complexities and confusions of Christopher Boone’s world in a way that its predecessors did not touch. It is not only because Ed Boulton-Roberts is a truly remarkable young actor (as were both Joshua Jenkins and Scott Reid in Bath).

Anyone who saw the original and touring productions must have been vastly impressed, and perhaps slightly apprehensive, that a small non-professional company could tackle the hugely-complicated technical requirements of the play. I hadn’t suspected that the simplification of the staging could have such a profound effect on the narrative power, and on the “relatability” of the story. Without all the outside “noise” of flashing lights and special effects, Christopher’s plight in an often incomprehensible world made much more sense, and in Jane Sayer’s sensitive, perfectly balanced production at Street, the story WAS about Christopher and his parents and mentor, rather than the brilliance of the visuals.

That is not to say that Street Theatre Company’s own technical crew didn’t do a marvellous job creating the necessary projections that illuminated Christopher’s thought-processes for the audience.

The story, in case you don’t know, is of a neuro-diverse 15-year-old from Swindon who comes across the body of a neighbour’s dog, done to death with a garden fork. Christopher, a mathematical genius who can’t read the ambiguities of the human face, doesn’t comprehend the need for metaphor, can’t bear to be touched and needs routine to get through the days, knows that the dead dog is something unusual. When a police officer seems to blame him for the death, he determines to discover the real perpetrator. He discovers that all the things he relied on are based on lies. So he runs to the only person who can explain what is really happening.

The news these days is full of reports of SEND funding and facilities in schools, and how its provision is effecting primary and secondary education. Mark Haddon’s book, uniquely published in an adult and a young readers edition at the same time, had a huge impact on generations of readers. It has been an examination set book for many years.

Street Theatre Company is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. This production, with Nicky Hann as Christopher’s mentor, the calm and patient Siobhan, Rob Prince as his well-meaning but often wrong-headed father Ed and Eliane Morgan as the sometimes desperate Judy, his mother, sets an incredibly high bar for the rest of the year. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time calls for a six-strong ensemble of “voices” – those of the people with whom Christopher must interact. They are choreographically played by Lydia Grant, Jonathan Sansam, Allie White, Lee Housley, Romy Badman-King and Gill Williams, all creating crisply memorable characters. And there is an ahhh-factor cameo from Frank.

Everyone in the packed auditorium knows that they will be seeing much more of GCSE student, dancer and actor Ed Boulton-Roberts, whose extraordinary performance as Christopher will stay long in the memory.

GP-W