Getting to stage The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a dream come true for Mockingbird Theatre Company director Chris Baldock.

But it’s not his only dream to come true, for after years of presenting top productions at venues around town, Mockingbird now has a proper home at Belconnen Arts Centre where, Baldock tells me, “they’re looking after us very well”.

The Curious Incident is the stage adaptation by Simon Stephens of the 2003 Whitbread prizewinning mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon.

In the play, 15-year-old protagonist, Christopher John Francis Boone, finds Mrs Shears’ dead dog, speared with a garden fork.

Christopher records each fact in the book he is writing to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington – those notes become the basis of the play’s narration by Christopher’s para-professional, Siobhan (Leah Peel Griffiths).

With an extraordinary mathematical brain, Christopher is nonetheless ill-equipped to interpret everyday life.

He’s never ventured alone beyond the end of his road; he hates being touched and he distrusts strangers. 

But his detective work, forbidden by his boiler engineer father Ed (Richard Manning), takes him on a terrifying journey to London to find his mother, Judy (Claire White). 

On the way, as well as being swamped by unfamiliar sights and sounds, he meets a kaleidoscope of characters played by Meg Hyam, Chips Jin, Tracy Noble, Travis Beardsley, Peter Fock and Anthony Mayne.

Many people have called The Curious Incident “the Aspergers play” because Christopher is on the spectrum, but a quick bit of research reveals that the term has not been used as a diagnostic description since 2014. 

Baldock first read the novel about 10 or 12 years ago but found, “it’s technically huge, it is not just the finances behind it but it’s getting the right space to do it.”

He now has that space, a tiny flexible acting area within Belco Arts and as well, he found an American technical expert, Matt Kizer, who has developed an adaptable package of projections to help take the audience on the journey with Christopher. 

The result, Baldock tells me, is that “people are going to be fully inside it”.

He could have a nice problem on his hands, because he just discovered that the incident is being studied at school, so he may be deluged.

“This is my style of theatre where the acting is ultra-real, but it’s stylised in the staging.”

The book and the play, although famous for looking at someone on the autism spectrum, never names it as such, rather showing that no two people are the same.

“The guy who wrote it never used the word autism, but the autistic community has totally embraced this character and we try to honour that as best we can,” Baldock says.

They’ve found by accident that the last Wednesday of the show, April 2, is Autistic Awareness Day so they’re looking at how to use that.

They have not cast an actor on the spectrum, although it’s been done before. 

“Christopher is a very particular character, but I don’t think the heart of the show is the condition, although the audience members may see themselves as representing the ‘normal’ point of view,” he says.

He has two Christophers, Wajanoah Donohoe and Ethan Wiggin, because they both did fantastic auditions but also because Baldock thought if either became indisposed, they’d have a fallback. 

Also, he says: “Christopher is an absolutely massive on-stage role who goes through every emotion.” 

Donohoe, who’s only been here from Indonesia for over a year, is playing him on opening-night then Wiggin alternates and gets an extra performance.

One important aspect of the production will be the sensory side of it. Some audience members may have more sensory awareness than others so they’ll be forewarning them of the lighting and sound and music effects.

“We’re doing it three-quarter round and everyone has a prime position, so it’s very immersive,” Baldock says.

“The scene where Christopher decides to go on a journey to London is special. The journey is very much a part of his mind – I’ve put my stamp on it there. It’s a lovely thing that the playwright doesn’t dictate how things should be done and we have had this in mind and used our imaginations.”

Once in London there’s also an astonishing scene where Christopher has to confront the cacophony of sound and light and movement.

“Recreating that has been a wonderful experience, I want the audience to feel like they’re with Christopher,” he says.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Belconnen Arts Centre, March 20-April 5.