I had heard so many good things about this show that I couldn’t let it leave the West End without seeing it. It is an extraordinary show that makes you pause and really think about yourself, the world around you and the way you treat others. Joseph Ayre is phenomenal as Christopher; endearing, brave and strong. He makes you realise how daunting and bewildering the everyday world is, and how brave and strong people with Asperger’s are to live and operate in it. It is something that we cannot imagine or comprehend but this show tries to give you a brief insight, and manages to do it cleverly and sensitively with moments of comedy and light relief.
The stage and setting is some of the most technical I have seen, and it is incorporated beautifully and fluidly into the action. The physicality of some of the staging is magical - the astronaut and escalator scenes are particularly clever and note worthy. And yet, for all the cleverness, there is a constant sad undertone. This is really brought to the forefront in the second act as Christopher makes his journey through London. You really feel for him as he battles the London streets and the tube - which can be awful even if you know London and commute every day! - and you feel the total and utter devastation and heart break of a mother not being able to hold her child because he cannot stand to be touched.
This is a bright flashy show and yet it is also quiet and subtle and introverted. It sounds like an incompatible dichotomy but it’s true - for all the lights and sound and flashy technical tricks, this is a show set inside a boy’s head, and it is unlike anything else that is on, or that I have seen.
The cast are wonderfully supportive, everyone giving a great performance, but it is Ayre who is the star, in a role that cannot be easy. My only criticism of this show is that it is slightly long. I wasn’t clock-watching, but I definitely thought that the first act was going to end at least 10 minutes before it actually did.
If you haven’t managed to catch this show in the West End you should try and catch it on tour as it would be a shame to miss out on it.