by Simon Stephens, based on a novel by Mark Haddon
Highbury Players, director Maura Judges
Highbury Theatre, Friday 12th June 2026
The origins of this story go back to a 2003 novel written by Mark Haddon, which won the Whitbread Award for that year. The play version by Simon Stephens dates back to 2012 and was a multiple Olivier Award winner. It tells the story of Christopher, a 15 year old boy with an unspecified mental health condition (as Haddon has confirmed) and the consequences of him finding his neighbour’s dog to have been killed by a garden fork.
Bearing in mind that even as recently as 2003, mental health conditions got nowhere near the attention that they thankfully do now, this is an effective almost case study into what those conditions can mean to those living with them.
The characters are meant to be from Swindon but there was no attempt by any of the cast to adopt the accent of the area, which was probably a good decision; it only takes one bad accent to detract from the story.
We had minimal settings on stage with boxes on set all that broke up the stage, with other props such as chairs, suitcases and so on being brought on and off as and when necessary. This certainly helped with the flow of the production and ensured we could move from scene to scene with efficiency.
The curtain was open when we entered the auditorium and we were greeted by the sight of the aforementioned dead dog. (Very much a prop I am pleased to say albeit a somewhat convincing one – no animals were harmed in the making of this production!)
We had a mix here of scenes which were largely characters talking to each other but then also scenes with a lot of movement, no more so when we reach those set at Paddington station which have a lot of people rushing in and out as they get to their trains. These scenes were very well co-ordinated with everyone knowing exactly where they needed to be and avoiding bumping into each other.
We had a monitor screen on the top (stage) right, which gave an indication as to where each scene was taking place. Not sure if it was prominent enough as I only twigged it was there a few minutes into the show. That said it was well used and ensured that, bearing in mind the minimal set, we knew exactly where everything was taking place.
An excellent cast had been assembled for this production. There were a couple of noticeable prompts during the performance (I’m not naming who needed them) but for the most part this was a well rehearsed team.
Henry Revell played the lead character of Christopher Boone and, whilst clearly not a 15 year old, gave a sufficiently child-like performance so that we soon forgot all about that. In the programme, Henry states he has autism, which is also the condition that has been assigned to the character, which will have given him an insight to how to play the part and hence we got some subtle nuances from the character such as his hand movements, line delivery and so on.
Tina Williams gave a strong performance as Siobhan, Christopher’s mentor and for the first act pretty much the narrator, reading largely from Christopher’s journals. Tina fulfilled the dual requirements of the role with aplomb.
Christopher’s parents Ed and Judy were played by real life couple Paul and Annie Moseley which gave us a close dynamic between the couple, although I hope their off stage relationship isn’t as, shall we say chaotic, as the one portrayed by their characters!
Paul’s portrayal of Ed gave us an excellent characterisation of someone who obviously loves his son but also gets frustrated by a condition that he doesn’t understand. Annie’s performance as Judy was a more compassionate individual as well as being more strong willed when faced up against her (fictional) husband.
The rest of the cast largely played multiple roles across the production and each actor made sure that each one of these roles was distinct from the others, helped of course by what was provided by the costume department.
Phil Nooney was predominantly Christopher’s former neighbour Roger Shears, who had run off with Judy some time ago a fact that had been hidden by Ed claiming she was dead. We had a suitably deadpan performance here as someone who can clearly seen to be wondering what he has been landed with when he encounters the Boones.
Dave Douglas gave us some contrasting roles including Christopher’s neighbour, 2 presumably different policemen and the intriguingly named “Man with Socks”. Thankfully it wasn’t “Man with Only Socks”.
The rest of the cast were similarly employed in a variety of roles, highlights of which included Suzanne Reffin and Phil Thebridge clearly having a ball as a couple of aging punks, complete with outrageously colourful wigs that Mrs Slocombe would have been very proud of.
This is a challenging play to perform and at times is not comfortable to watch, but Highbury have taken the challenge head on and given us a very thought provoking piece of theatre which fully holds the attention from start to finish.
A big well done to all of those involved.
Reviewed By – David G.
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