Butter Side Up Theatre Company’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time – 14 November 2025, Merlin Theatre
Review by Polly Turner.
This play is a dramatized version of Mark Haddon’s celebrated book of the same name, which – full disclosure here! – I hadn’t read before seeing this production. In fact, I’d actively avoided it as it centred on the killing of a pet dog. But on looking at Butter Side Up’s Facebook pages I soon realised that isn’t the key theme of the play at all, and approached it with less trepidation!
In fact, the story is about a neurodiverse teenage boy and how he uncovers other things about his family while investigating the death of his neighbour’s dog (which has happened before the play starts – and although there is a slightly gruesome prop onstage at the beginning this soon disappears).
It’s a play about someone finding strengths he didn’t know he had, and it’s about the complexity of people and how they behave in stressful situations. Butter Side Up said the play is being about ‘heart, connection and creativity’ and how it ‘champions neurodivergence through an honest lens’ and their commitment to this is obvious in director Harry Lynch-Bowers’ production.
If all this makes the play sound heavy, then that would be entirely a wrong impression. It does explore complex family and life issues, but it also has moments of humour and observations that will actually make you laugh out loud.
First produced in 2012, the play has gained Olivier and Tony awards, but what made this production for me was the quality of the acting. The whole cast performed seamlessly, but I must give a particular shoutout to the four principal characters.
Anthony Garbett, who plays the character of teenage Christopher, has appeared in previous roles with the company but this is his biggest so far and he delivers a performance full of energy that galvanises the stage, bringing us into the character’s confusion, fears and enthusiasms.
Connor Varley, who plays dad Ed, portrays a man doing his best in life and not always getting thigs right, but who also clearly loves and cares for his son and fights for him to achieve things. The character is not always sympathetic, but Varley makes his vulnerable humanity very engaging.
Caz Coulthard as the absent mother Judy has what I believe is a difficult role, being the parent who walked away, but she brings dimension into the character, showing past sorrow and giving us empathy for someone who just couldn’t cope but in the end gives up a possible other life for her son.
Georgia Deith as teacher Siobhan holds together the action as narrator, breaking the fourth wall occasionally to remind us this is a play of a book but still playing her character as fully human.
Does Christopher in the end solve the murder of Wellington the dog, like Sherlock Holmes in the stories he likes? Spoilers – yes he does, but he finds out so much more along the way, and the whole story has a hopeful and uplifting ending.
We enjoyed the production, as did friends of ours who we bumped into in the auditorium.
And as Siobhan invites us to stay on after the end to listen to how Christopher solves the problem in his A-level maths exam, one or two of us actually do!
