Joshua’s Curious Incident All Set To Take Place At The Liverpool Empire

Posted on 13 July 2015
By Chris High
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The hit shows at The Liverpool Empire Theatre just keep on coming. Hot on the heels of the acclaimed productions of Barnum, The Jersey Boys and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels comes The National Theatre’s award winning Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Mark Haddon’s uber-selling novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which runs at the theatre from July 21st to July 25th.

The story – for those whop haven’t read the novel – revolves around Christopher, an intelligent youth who lives in the functional hinterland of Aspergers; every day is an investigation for him because of all the aspects of human life that he does not quite get. When the dog next door is killed with a garden fork, Christopher becomes quietly persistent in finding out what has happened and tugs away at the world around him until a lot of secrets messily unravel.

Playing the lead role of Christopher is Swansea born actor Joshua Jenkins, who cannot wait to come to the home of the biggest Rock ‘n’ Roll band in world history. “This is my first time visiting Liverpool and of all the places we go to on tour it’s the one I’m probably most excited about seeing,” he said. “I’m an enormous Beatles fan and I want to do all the touristy stuff whenever I get a chance. We’ll get a couple of days off to take in the city, so I’m incredibly excited about that. The best part of being on tour is that we get to spend time in so many beautiful cities across the UK and Ireland and I get to go to places I’ve never been before. The worst part, though, is living out of a suitcase for 12 months and being away from friends and family.”

With The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time being based around a central character with Aspergers, Joshua needed to carry out some pretty extensive research. “I went to a couple of schools where I met a few students who were on the autistic spectrum and spoke to their teachers too, which was so helpful. I also watched films and documentaries and read as many books as I could find on the subject. I’d already read Mark Haddon’s book a few years ago and, like most of the country, fell in love with it. I obviously then reread it a lot during the audition and rehearsal process; Simon Stephens has captured the novel perfectly and has stayed really true to it. Like the book, you really get to see the world through Christopher’s eyes.”

“The trick beyond that was how to make that theatrically interesting to watch and the director Marianne Elliot, with help from Frantic Assembly, have really brought those pages to life. It’s quite an extraordinary production. For me, though, it has been as equally important to stay true to Simon Stephens’ adaptation and use the material that’s there in front of me.”

Joshua knew early on that he wanted to be on stage, although possibly not in acting, and it took a Liverpool born legend to finally inspire him to take it up. “I’ve known from a young age that I wanted to be in this profession in some shape or form but I really started to take acting seriously when I was about 15 or 16 when I watched Rising Damp for the first time. Leonard Rossiter’s performance inspired me to act so much I went to Gorseinon College in Swansea to do a BTEC. The teachers there were so good and supportive, acting quickly became the only option for me.”

The show is around 2 ½ hours long and Joshua is on stage throughout. As a result, the physicality of the piece is pretty intense and preparation has had to be just right as well as ongoing. “Every morning during rehearsals the whole ensemble took part in a “boot camp” which involved sit ups, press ups, skipping and so forth in order to get us in to shape. It was torture but great at the same time. We’ve taken this routine on tour, so every day before a show we do about half an hour of fitness work lead by our movement captain Jess Williams, who whips us in to shape.”

Which, with regards to his maths, is more than can be said for Joshua’s numerical mastery. Unlike Christopher, who is obsessed with facts and figures, Joshua is only 50 % on the same wavelength. “I’m pretty decent at the facts part of things and awful at the maths … I mean seriously dreadful. I haven’t even got a maths GCSE.”

Being Swansea born, Joshua is a huge fan of Swansea City FC and is more than a little optimistic about the upcoming season. “I can’t wait for it to start again and I’m excited about the signings we’ve made. Hopefully we’ll have a comfortable season and finish in the top half: I’d be happy with that. I’m a massive fan of Gary Monk so I’m sure with him at the helm we’ll do fine.”

And South Wales has quite a few artistic heavyweights past and present of its own. Is there anybody Joshua would like to have the chance to interview, given the chance? “As an actor it would have to be Richard Burton and I’d ask him to tell me stories of his hell raiser days. He was such a wonderful actor and I’m sure he’d have some cracking anecdotes up his sleeve.”

This is a massive part for any actor. How has it been adapting to the technical aspects of the show, and particularly keeping on top of all of its lights and projections? “It’s been an amazing experience actually and every night I feel lucky to be stepping on to that wonderful set. Christopher doesn’t leave the stage for the duration of the play, so it requires high levels of concentration to stay in tune with the technical aspects of the show.”

“The set is designed so brilliantly it captures Christopher’s world perfectly and this really helps me, as an actor, understand what he’s feeling at any given moment. The set, lights and projections would be a gift for an actor in this play and I feel truly honoured to be the one who gets to play Christopher on this tour underneath them all.”

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is at The Liverpool Empire Theatre from July 21st to July 25th. For Tickets: http://www.atgtickets.com/shows/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time/liverpool-empire/

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