In June 2026, the Level 3 Acting for Stage and Screen students were proud to perform the iconic play, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, for a three-day run in Stockton Riverside College’s Margaret Armstrong Theatre.
First performed at the National Theatre, a staple of many GCSE exams and yearly national tours, the script was adapted by Simon Stephens and based on the novel by Mark Haddon. The story follows Christopher Boone, an exceptionally gifted 15-year-old with autism. When he discovers his neighbour’s dog murdered with a pitchfork, Christopher sets out to solve the crime. His investigation uncovers buried family secrets, triggering a brave and overwhelming journey to London.
Within the acting group, there are several neurodivergent cast members, including Jack and Alfie, who played the lead role of Christopher Boone on different nights. We caught up with Jack, Alfie, Sammie and Hannah who were keen to share their experiences about working on the show! The group wanted to raise awareness amongst their castmates about the differing levels of neurodiversity, and as part of the process the group had a training session to help the others understand how they approach different scenarios, giving their different versions for each. The group said: “This has been the most supportive cast ever, and Kelly (Course Leader, Acting) hoped that by doing this show, we will be able to learn more about respecting one another, which we did.”
The group agreed that this production was important as it can show the challenges of a neurotypical individual. They advised: “The play is all through Christopher’s point of view and how he sees the world working, when you ask an autistic person what’s going on inside their head, this is a really good way to see it.”
When asked what the most rewarding part was about working on this production, Alfie said: “It’s not just the ability to be able to play somebody neurotypical but also to be able to teach the audience. Somebody came up to me after the show and said he related to my character a lot and it made me really emotional, it was really nice to have someone from the audience who could relate.”
Jack added: “For me, it was my first big role and I wanted to get across that autism is a spectrum, not everybody is like Christopher specifically. All four of us are autistic but we are all very different but do the same course, it’s nice to know you have other similar people around you who get it.”
Putting on this show did also come with challenges, the group said out of all the shows they’ve done, this one has been the most special to them, but it was also difficult, for example, one scene where the cast had to overstimulate Christopher. Sammie found this particularly tough and had to leave on one occasion, she said: “It was more mentally hard than anything else, we do acting to get a break but doing a play about autism, it was hard to get the break from it.”
When asked what it means to see neurodivergent themes discussed in theatre, the group thinks it is great for awareness but there should be more out there. Sammie shared that she has written her own short play about the differences between high and low needs, she said: “Some people feel anger towards The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time because it is so stereotypical, with many stereotypical traits in one character, people assume there is just one type of autism, but everyone is different.”
Finally, the cast wanted to share their pieces of advice to other neurodivergent people hoping to get into acting, they said: “What you have is not something to be scared of, it’s a gift and it’s full of creativity, you can go into acting and get given a character and do so much with it – it’s actually quite a gift! But it’s like life, it has it’s ups and downs. Just go for it, you never know what you’re capable of if you don’t try!”
If you are thinking about a career on stage and screen, we’d love for you to apply for one of our acting courses, more information can be found here on our website.
