Review: Den besynnerliga händelsen med hunden om natten

★★★★★

Paavo Westerberg directed a charming mystery at Lilla Teatern about the courage that begins with a murder – “All areas are top-notch”

Den besynnerliga eventn med hunden om natten premiered at Lilla Teatern on Saturday and convinced HS critic Sanna Kangasniemi, who gave the performance five stars.

British author Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) won numerous awards after its publication. The same happened to the play script based on the novel by Simon Stephens, which in 2013 received the Olivier Awards for Best New Play. So there is plenty of evidence of quality.
But what will happen on the Swedish-speaking stage?
It’s going great, really good. This was revealed on Saturday, when Paavo Westerberg’s directorial The Peculiar Event with the Dog About the Night premiered at Lilla Teatern.

Westerberg’s first Swedish-language direction is not only a fine interpretation of Haddon’s novel, but also fully enjoyable theatre, where all aspects are top notch and in balance with each other.

The audience – who wonderfully get to fill every seat in the auditorium – can see Sven Dahlberg’s set as soon as they arrive in the auditorium. Milky glass plexiglass forms a semicircle with seven chairs placed in front of it. There seems to be no way backstage, and all seven actors enter through the auditorium. They sit down, take their microphones, and then we go.
The main character, Christopher (Alexander Wendelin), is a 15-year-old boy living in the small town of Swindon. The author Haddon has described him as a mathematician with behavioral difficulties, and Christopher has generally been interpreted as being on the autism spectrum. He calculates even difficult calculations quickly, but is unable to interpret other people’s expressions or the metaphors they use. If you touch him, he hits or shouts.
Wendelin transforms into Christopher on stage up to his fingertips, and with his role he manages to show both the Christopher who is difficult for neurotypical people to understand and the one who is similar to any other person who knows.

Cecilia Paul is a wisely questioning teacher, Robert Kock is a clumsy but largely patient father, and Vuokko Hovatta is a working-class mutt, benevolent but makes mistakes. Ulriikka Heikinheimo, Pia Runnakko and Joachim Wigelius spice up the supporting roles with just the right mix of sincerity and comedy.
On its surface level, this story is first and foremost a mystery. That is why it is more than appropriate that while the events gradually unfold, the closed staging also unfolds. First, with dizzying coastal landscape videos projected onto plexiglass screens that turn out to be video screens, which are responsible for Toni Haaranen, and then concretely with sliding doors.
The dichotomy of the set design is also noteworthy: it is both infinitely simplified and extremely detailed – sometimes startling, sometimes humorous.

The soundscapes (Antero Mansikka) are skilfully made, the locations are drawn as living backgrounds. The same applies to the lights (Ville Aaltonen), which, together with the videos, are an important mood creator.

So great, now everyone else has been praised except director Westerberg.
His praise can be summed up as follows: Westerberg manages to keep the most important message of The Night Dog, i.e. courage and daring – without forgetting the difficulty of parenthood – on display throughout the work. At the same time, he makes joyful theatre where everything is possible, and the mood of one moment does not have to dictate the next. The performance’s two brisk musical numbers alone make you want to watch the work again.

Another great solution is to show the body of the performance text completely bare towards the end.