Review: Den besynnerliga händelsen med hunden om natten
Touching about a boy’s unique way of being in the world
Alexander Wendelin makes an extremely sensitive portrait of a fifteen-year-old on the autism spectrum in Lilla Teatern’s production of the international hit The Strange Event with the Dog at Night.
Seven actors march onto the stage, sit on chairs placed around the walls and – padam, a dead golden retriever plunges down in the middle of the floor out of nowhere. The surprise is total, and there begins a story that holds you in a grip for three hours.
The strange incident with the dog in the night was also the name of the award-winning novel by Mark Haddon, on which the equally award-winning play dramatized by Simon Stephens is based. Lilla Teatern’s production is Paavo Westerberg’s directorial debut at Lilla Teatern.
The story of fifteen-year-old Christopher, who decides to solve the mystery of who murdered the neighbor’s dog with a fork – because it wasn’t him, even though he is initially accused of it – unfolds bit by bit to finally become something much more than it first appears to be.
Christopher is just ChristopherChristopher, played by Alexander Wendelin , who is playing his first major leading role at Lilla Teatern with an incredible sensitivity, sensitivity and integrity, is the math genius who doesn’t like anyone touching him, or brown or yellow food. He is most comfortable alone with his computer and his rat. He can talk about the universe until someone asks him to stop. No diagnosis is mentioned in the play. Christopher is just Christopher.
When, despite his father Ed’s (Robert Kock) strict prohibition, he begins his search in the neighborhood, he first encounters a wall of silence. It is the friendly lady next door with the biscuits (Pia Runnakko) who finally speaks next to her mouth, and later Christopher also finds a box full of letters that turns everything he thought was true upside down.
The story is both humorous and sad, but most of all very human. Relationships are not easy, controlling one’s reactions is not always possible, and being different is not always so easy either. We all live to the best of our ability.
Atmospheric visualization
The performance has a clattering rhythm with sharp changes of light and dark, silence and sound (light by Ville Aaltonen, sound by Antero Mansikka). The simple black chairs move in their own choreography and create different rooms, and the rounded walls with doors take us to different places. It’s a bit of an involuntary comedy when the sliding doors get stuck a couple of times – hopefully they can be fixed before the next performance.
The story is visualised with everyday objects falling from the ceiling and hanging in the air. Memories, images and thoughts float everywhere that happens. The solution is interesting and fun. The video projections by Toni Haaranen create an additional atmosphere.
Up to the challenge
While all the actors do a good job, it’s Alexander Wendelin who really impresses.
I can imagine that the role is really not easy, and the pitfalls could be many. How to portray a person whose behavior and reality deviate from oneself and what is seen as the norm, without doing so in a ridiculous, misleading, embarrassing, exaggerated or unbelievable way? Of course, the same dilemma applies to all situations where the character belongs to a minority and the actor belongs to a majority, but the current case feels extra sensitive.
That makes it even more gratifying and beautiful that Wendelin’s portrait of Christopher is so well done and somehow self-evident. His facial expressions, energy, tone of voice and especially the way he holds and holds his hands are carefully developed, certainly both by himself and by director Westerberg. The outbursts of emotion and rage also feel real and hurt to witness.
At the same time, it is of a kind that at least I have never seen on a theater stage before. This is probably one of the reasons why the play has been so praised: there must be room for everyone in art.