The National Theatre 'The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time'

Copthall was lucky to be thoroughly ‘wowed’ in late September when The National Theatre attended our school to deliver a performance of ‘The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time’.

The performance took place in room 12, using a scaled down version of the set that has been in the West End on the National UK tour.

120 students from across all three Performing Arts disciplines (Music, Dance and Drama), watched the 90 minute performance which saw us following the story of Christopher Boone, a young boy with a phenomenal brain which means he is excellent at Maths, but ill-equipped to deal with everyday life, as he journeyed to find out who had killed Mrs. Shear’s dog!

All of the girls were enthralled from the outset as we saw Wellington laid prone on the stage with a large garden fork sticking out of him! We then followed Christopher around his town of Swindon, to London and back where things all came together for him and we got to meet his puppy (played by 3 month old Poppy, a toy poodle!).

Creative Director of Music and Drama, Chris Kendrick said “This was an incredible opportunity for each and every one of the girls who attended the performance, and the question and answer session with the cast after the performance was invaluable. This allowed the girls a real chance to gain an insight into the play and into the incredible amount of hard work that goes into a production of this scale. Many of our girls have not experienced live theatre before. Thanks to the generosity of The National Theatre and their schools programme, we were able to give our girls this opportunity free of charge!”

Student feedback about the performance has been overwhelmingly positive with students already asking what the next production we host is going to be. Some student feedback has included “The guy who played Christopher was amazing, I can’t believe how well he managed to hide his accent” and “It was amazing – we had a great morning. It was such a good play”.

We are thrilled that everyone had such a good time and we can’t wait to put on the next show!

Photographs: copyright Copthall School