The Santa Barbara City College Theater Group bounds ahead with its 2019-20 season to present a new production of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Simon Stephens, based on the novel by Mark Haddon. Directed by Katie Laris, with sets and lighting by Patricia L. Frank, costumes by Pamela Shaw, and sound design by Barbara Hirsch.
“Dog in the Night-Time” features a cast that includes (in alphabetical order): 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.
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” according to the program notes, is a play told from the perspective of a 15-year-old boy, Christopher Boone (Daniel Sabraw), who describes himself as a ‘mathematician with some behavioral difficulties’ living in Wiltshire, England.
“He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched, and he distrusts strangers. When Christopher discovers the dead 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.
“He 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 title of the play refers to this passage in A. Conan Doyle‘s 1892 story, “Silver Blazes:”
“GREGORY (Scotland Yard detective): Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?
“SHERLOCK HOLMES: To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
“GREGORY: The dog did nothing in the night-time.
“SHERLOCK HOLMES: That was the curious incident.”
The clue points to the significance of something that might have been expected to happen, but didn’t.
The play turns on a commonplace, which happens to be true, that people with exceptional gifts — especially problem-solving gifts — can best develop those gifts in solitude, either voluntary or enforced.
Sherlock Holmes is the prototype of the neurotic genius with a severely restricted social life — basically, his housekeeper and his amanuensis, Dr. Watson, who keeps several steps ahead of the official competition (the police) because he is undistracted by irrelevant social interactions.
While most of us would be uncomfortable, not to say terrified, to find ourselves removed from our busy social context, we delight in watching eccentric loners solving crimes and explaining the inexplicable.
That is why Holmes is continually reborn for each new generation, and that is the pleasure that lies at the heart of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.”
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” plays Feb. 26-March 14 in the Garvin Theatre, on the West Campus of Santa Barbara City College, 900 block of Cliff Drive. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sundays. Previews are at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 26-27.
The 2 p.m. performance on Sunday, March 1, 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 for the previews are $18 general, $15 seniors, $10 students; for Thursday evening and Sunday matinees, $24 general, $19 seniors, $14 students; and for Friday and Saturday evenings, $26 general, $21 seniors, $17 students. For information or reservations, call the Garvin Theatre Box Office, 805-965-5935, or buy tickets online at www.theatregroupsbcc.com.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.