The Theatre Group at SBCC continues the 2019/20 season with the Tony Award-winning play “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” Feb. 26-March 14 in the Garvin Theatre. The play by Simon Stephens is based on the novel by Mark Haddon. Katie Laris directs.
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” which won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play, is told from the perspective of a 15-year-old-boy, Christopher Boone, who describes himself as a “mathematician with some behavioral difficulties” living in Wiltshire, England.
Christopher has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched, and he distrusts strangers. When he discovers the body of his neighbor’s dog Wellington, speared with a garden fork, and finds himself under suspicion, he is determined to find out what happened.
Christopher overcomes his fears and difficulties to set off on a rather perilous adventure to uncover the mystery behind the murdered dog and the truth of his own unique life story.
“The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time” cast features Joseph Beck, Clare Carey, Peter Crawford, Steven Robert Davenport, Samantha Eve, Marion Freitag, Felicia Hall, Brian Harwell, Frances Manthorpe, Will Muse, Daniel Sabraw and Tiffany Story.
Performance times are 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; 2 p.m. Sundays. Previews at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 26-27.
The 2 p.m. Sunday, March 1, performance will be live-captioned for the hearing-impaired. All performances have the assisted-listening system available and the Garvin Theatre is wheelchair accessible.
Ticket prices are: Previews $18 general/$15 seniors/$10 students; Thursday evening and Sunday matinees $24 general/$19 seniors/$14 students; Friday and Saturday evenings $26 general/$21 seniors/$17 students.
The Garvin Theatre is on the West Campus of Santa Barbara City College in the 900 block of Cliff Drive. Parking is free and near the theatre. For information or reservations, call the Garvin Theatre Box Office, 805-965-5935 or buy tickets online at www.theatregroupsbcc.com.
Novelist Haddon was born in Northampton in 1962. He graduated from Oxford University in 1981, returning later to study for a masters in English literature at Edinburgh University. He then undertook a variety of jobs, including work with children and adults with mental and physical disabilities. He also worked as an illustrator and a cartoonist.
Haddon’s first book for children “Gilbert’s Gobstopper” appeared in 1987 and was followed by a number of other books and picture books for children.
In 2003, his novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” was published. It is the first book to have been published simultaneously in two imprints, one for children and one for adults. It has won a string of awards, including the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year.
Haddon’s second novel “A Spot of Bother” was published in 2006 and shortlisted for the 2006 Costa Novel Award.
Stephens is an English playwright, born Feb. 6, 1971. Having taught on the Young Writers’ Programme at the Royal Court Theatre for a number of years, he is now an artistic associate at the Lyric Hammersmith.
He is the inaugural associate playwright of Steep Theatre Company, Chicago, where four of his plays, “Harper Regan,” “Motortown,” “Wastwater” and “Birdland” had their U.S. premieres. Stephens’ writing is performed throughout Europe; he is one of the most performed English-language writers in Germany.
— Pamela Lasker is theater manager for The Theatre Group at SBCC.