“The Curious World of Christopher Boone” is about an autistic boy. But the film was not always autism-friendly | Australian Theatre

The play has barely begun, but on the stage of Belvoir's new production of The Curious World of Christopher Boone, a countdown clock is already ticking towards something explosive.

Christopher, an autistic teenager, becomes involved in a murder mystery (involving his neighbor's dog). Emotions run high and a confrontation looms.

But instead of increasing the tension, the clock breaks it: we have five seconds to prepare for something loud. When it happens, we are prepared and can take care of ourselves.

Mark Haddon's bestselling 2003 novel has been adapted for the stage several times before, but this warning system is unique to the show now in Sydney – and is explained in detail by the cast before the show begins. There are also “timetables” in the foyer to allow audiences to safely navigate the plot twists and big sensory moments embedded in the work, and there is a quiet room in the theatre's lounge for audience members who may need it.

This is all part of what director Hannah Goodwin describes as “neurodivergent, affirmative dramaturgy” designed to make the play more accessible.[I wanted to] “We wanted to make a show that Christopher himself would enjoy and have access to,” she says.

This was not always the priority: London's National Theatre's critically acclaimed 2012 production, which previously toured Australia, relied on dramatic lighting, video projections and sound cues to portray Christopher's experience of sensory overload, making the performance challenging for neurodiverse audiences – and potentially prohibitive for autistic performers.

Autistic actor Daniel R. Nixon, who plays Christopher in Belvoir's production (and previously played an autistic teenager in the Queensland Theatre's acclaimed production of Drizzle Boy), describes watching clips of the National Theatre's production online as “almost triggering from a sensory perspective”.

Goodwin worked closely with Nixon and neurodiverse members of her creative team to design a show that was as accessible to audience members onstage as it was to those offstage. She also drew on the expertise of award-winning Western Australian theatre company Sensorium, which produces shows for young audiences with disabilities, and Drizzle Boy director Daniel Evans.

Nixon says he is particularly proud of the production's countdown system, which he believes mirrors the warning system in Christopher's brain. He hopes it will help audiences understand “what it actually feels like when someone [approaching] sensory overload or possibly a panic attack or something like that where it really feels like a ticking time bomb is going off.”

Haddon's book had a profound emotional impact on Nixon. “I had never read a story that touched me so deeply before,” he says.

At the time of its release, and even a decade later when British playwright Simon Stephens' stage adaptation premiered at the National Theatre, portrayals of autistic protagonists were rare in mainstream media.

Since then, however, the book and play have been criticized for problematizing autism, promoting simplistic stereotypes, and uncritically portraying the abusive treatment of Christopher by other characters. (Haddon himself has stated that he knew very little about autism and did “no research” before writing his novel.)

“I know the book and the play have caused a little bit of division in the community. I don't think it resonates with everyone,” Nixon says. “I was able to look past some of those potential moments and just be happy that I was able to see a character like myself.”

Goodwin, meanwhile, has grappled with the “thorny” source material, returning the play to its original setting in the late 1990s to better contextualize the portrayal of autism and acknowledge that Christopher's experiences in the world today would be different, given more advanced support systems, understandings and technologies.

“We as an artistic team definitely had a slightly antagonistic relationship with some of the content,” she says. “And I hope that this has opened up the piece and the discussion about the aspects of the autistic experience that this piece is trying to accurately portray a little more than a production five years ago might have done.”