Tea

 Photo: Nada Zakula

One of the nicest things about bringing Curious Incident to Oxford is that it's the home town of the book's author, Mark Haddon. Mark has been constantly and consistently supportive of our production for many months now; and it's typical of his generosity that, as well as being there for us on our opening night in Oxford, he extended an invitation to the entire company to join him and his family for tea at his house yesterday.

In the twelve years since he wrote The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I imagine he's been asked and re-asked every single question about the book that anyone could possibly think of. In a focused and unpretentious manner that reminds me of David Mamet's writings about acting, he's always ready to bring the subject of his protagonist Christopher Boone right down to the bare essentials of character and plot. On Tuesday night, after our first show in Oxford, I asked him a fairly convoluted question about an aspect of the narrative, Christopher's part in it and why he decided upon a particular element of the story. He looked me square in the eye and soberly said - I suspect not for the first time - "You do know that he's not real, don't you?"