![]() ![]() There are great projections to both sides of the galley seating, and when you see how they match the dialogue they can actually assist you with understanding where Christopher is coming from. Now I must make an Ed-like confession of my own: HMT does an alright-at-best job with this. The productions on both the West End and Broadway were noted for their innovative use of technology this standard poses a real challenge for local theatres: to bring that grandeur to an intimate, more practical scale. “Curious Incident” was originally an award-winning book, turned into an award-winning play-within-a-play. You can tell that Buettner has worked attentively with his direction and comes from a perspective of sensitivity and care. I imagine it also would be accidentally easy to make this character a harmful caricature. Playing this role is a challenge on quite a few levels – the way we really understand autism as a society is through the lens of young white men. He is the thread that ties all of these performances together and motivates them his performance grants that motivation. It is very hard to not be excited by the performance of Christopher Buettner as Christopher Boone, a young Capital Region actor with a fine resume already. “Curious Incident” in rehearsals / Home-Made Theater Ed comes back and sets a 5-minute timer to explain to Christopher that he will spend the rest of his days trying to earn his trust again. The lived-in simplicity of Rudy’s performance makes it impressively natural when he helps solve Christopher’s two mysteries – by making confessions of his own, saying “it’s bloody hard telling the truth all the time.” The audience has the sense that Ed really is a man trying to do the right thing, even when his relationship with Christopher seems all but lost. This, contrasted with the quiet anchoring presence of Eric Rudy’s Ed, is grand to see. Verb’s Judy holds a subtle whimsy at first that turns into an aching longing for a life that could have been. A stellar performance from Verb as Judy, showing the complicated emotions some parents of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities can harbor. ![]() The difference between this vision and the mother-returned in real life was incredible. Sinnott shows that Siobhan’s goals as Christopher’s educator are unwavering in her interactions with the other characters Sinnott’s Siobhan really wants what’s best for Christopher – and she knows that is whatever he wants for himself.Īs Christopher learns more about what it is he might want in his life, and what it means for him to be brave, the audience is introduced to his mother Judy as an apparition, she is floating in as a happy memory from a trip to the shore. This pays off in Christopher’s “maths”-related triumph, long after he solves his mysteries, where Sinnott’s emotional release is palpable. As both the partial narrator and an invested character, Sinnott does wonderful work in showing her care for her student. Jennie Sinnott gets a workout as Siobhan. Alexander and Rick Wissler’s assorted police officers. I particularly loved Marilyn Detmer’s Mrs. Six other talented actors round out the rest of the ensemble, filling in roles and helping the audience peek into Christopher’s brilliant mind. One mystery becomes two, and the challenges of young adulthood co-existing with an intellectual disability inform the rest. Christopher’s mother (Elisa Verb) is also dead – or so he thinks until he finds years of her letters tucked away in his father’s closet. Christopher has a loving relationship with both his father, Ed (Eric Rudy), and his schoolteacher, Siobhan (Jennie Sinnott). All we know at the jump is that the murderer is not Christopher – who has made “detecting” his job in order to figure out whodunnit. The mystery is laid out for the audience the second they walk into the theatre: someone has killed a dog with a pitchfork. This story follows Christopher Boone (played by Christopher Buettner), a 15-year-old English boy who lives on the high-functioning end of the Autism spectrum. Christopher Buettner, Marilyn Detmer, and Rick Wissler in rehearsal. ![]()
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