Widely embraced on publication in 2003, Mark Haddon’s bestselling novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has since been criticised for the author’s depiction of a young person on the autism spectrum. Haddon later admitted he had done little research into the subject. “Imagination always trumps research,” he wrote in his own defence in 2009.

Much has changed since then. In this era, “lived experience” trumps everything.

Daniel R. Nixon in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Photo © Brett Boardman

British playwright Simon Stephens turned the book into a stage play, cleverly reworking a quirky whodunnit into a play-within-a-play. Its debut 2012 National Theatre production made a visual spectacular of the workings of its lead character’s mind. A critical and audience hit, it won seven Olivier Awards (a record not broken until Harry Potter and the Cursed Child appeared).

This Belvoir production, directed by Hannah Goodwin, takes a very different approach to presenting the story. Visually simplified and playfully earnest in its incorporation of ‘relaxed’ and ‘inclusive’ elements, the show begins with a preamble on its methodology. We’re told, for example, that loud noises...