The Curious Incident at a glance

Show
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Venue
New Wimbledon Theatre
Address
The Broadway, Wimbledon, London SW19 1QG
Nearest station
Wimbledon (District line, Overground, National Rail) — 5 min walk
Genre
Play / Drama
Running time
Approximately 2 hours 15 minutes, including one interval
Age guidance
11+ (some strong language; under-16s must be accompanied by an adult)
Dates
Tuesday 10 November – Saturday 14 November 2026
Price range
From £15.60 (up to £128)
Written by
Simon Stephens (adapted from the novel by Mark Haddon)
Director
Ned Bennett
Producers
Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep

Expert Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

4.8
★★★★★

LTH Expert Rating

Reviewed by the London Theatre Hub editorial team. Last updated: 2 May 2026.

The Verdict

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of the most important British plays of the past twenty-five years. Simon Stephens' adaptation of Mark Haddon's novel achieved something genuinely rare: it changed the theatrical conversation. The original National Theatre production — directed by Marianne Elliott, with its extraordinary use of light, sound, movement, and projected mathematics — invented a new theatrical grammar for representing a mind that experiences the world differently. It won seven Olivier Awards in 2013, transferred to Broadway and won five Tonys in 2015, and has been seen by more than five million people worldwide. The question now is what a new production makes of it.

Ned Bennett is the right director for the challenge. His productions of Equus and Pomona showed a director who thinks rigorously about the relationship between body, space, and psychological intensity — exactly what this play demands. This new staging, co-produced by Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep, has the ambition and the creative pedigree to be something genuinely fresh rather than a copy of what came before. Christopher Boone's journey is as urgent and as moving as it has ever been.

What Makes It Special

  • An extraordinary awards record. Seven Olivier Awards in 2013 — matching the then-record set by Matilda — including Best New Play, Best Director, and Best Actor. Five Tony Awards in 2015, including Best Play. No British play of the century has been more comprehensively recognised by its peers.
  • The theatrical form itself. The production's original staging used projections, choreographed movement, and the precise control of light and sound to represent Christopher's inner life — a mind that processes the world through numbers and patterns rather than conventional social feeling. The theatrical invention required to do this well is remarkable.
  • Ned Bennett's direction. Bennett's previous work — particularly Equus at the Trafalgar Studios and Pomona at the Orange Tree — demonstrates an exceptionally rigorous theatrical intelligence. His approach to the body in space and the relationship between physical and psychological experience is exactly suited to this material.
  • The story itself. At its heart, Curious Incident is about a boy trying to make sense of the world, and a family trying — and failing, and trying again — to love each other well. Underneath the theatrical innovation and the mathematical metaphors is one of the most emotionally direct stories in contemporary drama.
  • The price point. Tickets from £15.60 make this one of the most accessible high-quality productions touring London in 2026. For families with older children and teenagers, it is an outstanding value proposition.

You'll love it if you...

  • Enjoy intelligent, formally inventive theatre that also tells a deeply human story
  • Have read Mark Haddon's novel and want to see how it translates to the stage
  • Are bringing a teenager — this is one of the great plays for young people discovering serious theatre
  • Are interested in neurodiversity and how theatre can represent different ways of experiencing the world
  • Want outstanding theatre at a genuinely accessible price

It might not be for you if you...

  • Are bringing very young children — the themes and some language are firmly 11+
  • Prefer straightforward narrative drama without theatrical experimentation
  • Are hoping for a replica of the original NT production — this is a new staging with its own vision
  • Find emotionally intense family drama difficult to watch

Best for

  • Teenagers (11+)
  • Families with older children
  • Drama lovers
  • Book readers
  • South London theatregoers
  • First-time theatregoers

Not suitable for young children. Not a West End production — a major touring production at a top-quality receiving venue.

Critical Reception

The original National Theatre production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time opened at the Cottesloe Theatre in 2012 and received universal critical acclaim. UK critics awarded it five stars across the board, praising Simon Stephens' adaptation, Marianne Elliott's direction, and the production's extraordinary theatrical invention. Verified ratings from major UK publications for the original production:

  • The Guardian ★★★★★
  • The Times ★★★★★
  • The Telegraph ★★★★★
  • Time Out ★★★★★
  • Evening Standard ★★★★★
  • WhatsOnStage ★★★★★

Ratings above are for the original National Theatre production (2012–2013). Reviews of the new 2026 production directed by Ned Bennett will be published following opening performances in September 2026.

Everything You Need to Know

What happens in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time?

The play opens with Christopher Boone standing over Wellington — his neighbour Mrs Shears' dog — who has been killed with a garden fork. Christopher is fifteen years old, lives with his father Ed in Swindon, and has an exceptional gift for mathematics and logic. He decides to investigate the dog's death, approaching it as a detective — like Sherlock Holmes, whom he admires — and begins to record his investigation in a book.

The investigation begins

Christopher's father tells him to stay out of other people's business, but Christopher continues to question the neighbours. He is cautious around people and finds social interaction difficult to navigate — he dislikes being touched, struggles to read facial expressions, and relies on patterns and logic to make sense of the world around him. His investigations reveal unexpected details about his neighbourhood, his neighbours, and the relationships between them.

A much larger discovery

The mystery of Wellington turns out to be the smaller of the two revelations at the heart of the story. Christopher discovers that his mother, whom his father told him had died of a heart attack two years ago, is in fact alive and living in London with another man. The letters she has been secretly sending him have been hidden by his father. The discovery shatters what Christopher understood to be the fixed facts of his world.

The journey to London

Christopher decides — despite his profound anxiety about new places, crowds, and unpredictability — to travel to London by himself to find his mother. The sequence depicting his journey through Swindon station and across London on the Underground is one of the most theatrically virtuosic passages in contemporary British drama: a young person's terror of an overwhelming world rendered in movement, light, sound, and mathematics.

What he finds

Christopher reaches his mother and stepfather's flat in London. The rest of the play moves between Christopher's attempts to rebuild his understanding of his family, his father's desperation to repair the damage he has done, and Christopher's determination — in the face of everything — to sit his A-level maths exam. His success in that exam, and what it represents about what he is capable of, is the play's quiet, devastating conclusion.