The Glorious Performance of the Play in the Night-Time

             I stare cautiously at my seat, its usual velvety red shrouded by white t-shirt material. Upon further inspection, I realize that my seat has been labeled “a prime number seat” and there are several of them located around the Apollo Theatre. A prime number is a number that can only be divided evenly by one or itself, as Christopher will come to tell us later that evening. The production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time brings Mark Haddon’s novel of the same name to life. It centers around the tale of Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old with Asperger Syndrome.

             The role was played by a very energetic and convincing Luke Treadaway until his last show on August 31st. I was lucky enough to catch him on one of his last nights, performing at his emotional best. The role has now been taken over by Mike Noble, along with a completely new cast. At the Olivier Awards earlier this year, Treadaway was presented with the Olivier Award for Best Actor for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, while the play itself won seven Olivier Awards. Clearly Noble will be joining a renowned project, but he will have some visibly big shoes to fill.

             Asperger Syndrome is defined as an autism spectrum disorder characterized by severe social and nonverbal communication impairments. Individuals with Asperger Syndrome also tend to like routine in their day-to-day lives. Christopher attends a special needs school, because his behavioral issues can sometimes cause him trouble and upset. He is very adept at math and logic however. The entire stage at the Apollo Theatre is set up like a giant grid, which ties in nicely to Christopher’s interests and strengths. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time follows Christopher on a journey after he finds his neighbor’s dog dead, killed by a pitchfork. He sets out on a mission to solve the mystery, but he comes to learn some uncomfortable home truths in the process.

             The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is undoubtedly a tearjerker of a play, but it definitely holds its lighter moments in Christopher’s quips and mischievous adventures. Christopher is instantly lovable in his hoodie and sweatpants, tugging on the drawstring out of habit, but the entire cast really shines. They feed off of each other’s energy and it is apparent that this play is a grueling one to commit to. In the production I saw, Seán Gleeson made for a concerned and inexhaustibly patient father to Christopher. Holly Aird, who played Christopher’s mother, portrayed frustration and misunderstanding, but the audience never doubted her love for her son.

             The stage is utilized brilliantly throughout the play. Christopher scribbles down his progress in solving the murder of his neighbor’s dog one minute and is walking down makeshift steps on the wall the next. A particularly jarring scene exists when Christopher decides to visit London (for spoiler purposes, I shall not disclose why) and he is overwhelmed by all of the people, noises, and sights. The stage lights up with imposing brand logos and slogans. Clanging music evaporates upwards into the audience, allowing us to understand why Christopher’s nerves have been grated. Living in London, I can truly appreciate the scene where Christopher attempts to figure out the tube system. Anyone who has attempted the Underground will recognize that initial feeling of dread of where to get on, where to get off, and where to go in between!

             The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time delves into some touchy issues, but the result is a highly moving performance that is unlike any other stage production I have seen before. Christopher doesn’t like to be touched, so he prefers to show affection by touching hands with someone. It is in details like this that the tenderness of the play resonates on a grander scale. After having seen the play, I am hankering to read the book, which is written from Christopher’s perspective. The play instead opts to cast Siobhan (Niamh Cusack when I attended), Christopher’s teacher, as narrator. As she reads entries from Christopher’s journal, his voice comes through with its sweet awkwardness and straightforwardness.

             During the play, Christopher is the first person from his school to take a math A-level (the equivalent of senior year of high school exams in the United States). He begins to explain to the audience how to achieve the answer to one of the equations, but is abruptly stopped by Siobhan. She suggests that not everyone regards math as interesting, but for the people who would like to stay to hear the answer after the show, they are more than welcome. It appeared that everyone stayed afterwards to witness Christopher in his element. He used all of the high-tech gizmos at his disposal to give a dynamic math lesson, to say the least.

             Geometry never was my strong point, so even if the meaning was lost on me, it didn’t change the fact that I was left with a feel good vibe. A giant smiley face appeared at the very end of the show on the stage, a perfect understatement about the audience’s euphoric mood. Rather than feeling sorry for Christopher, the play elicits looking past the label of Asperger Syndrome to see a person who deserves to be treated just like the rest of us.

             To book tickets and learn more about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, see here.

             [Author’s Note: I am pleased to report that today, October 8th, I finished reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The feat itself only took me two days in total to complete, because it is near impossible to not gobble this book up. The play does not deviate far from the plot of the novel and even manages to keep some of the more minor details, hardly skipping a beat with the dialogue either. Christopher is every bit the witty and matter-of-fact narrator I expected him to be and reading from his perspective makes the tale all the more heartwarming. Not only does author Mark Haddon spotlight a misunderstood disorder, but he broaches the subject with gentleness and light-hearted humor to really win over the reader and make the book a standout one. I can only highly recommend picking up a copy at your earliest convenience.]

Underwater Reverie

             Apparently, my love of sharks and fascination with underwater creatures has only grown as I’ve gotten older. As far back as show and tell in fifth grade, my teacher asked us all to bring in items that represented us. I brought in a great white shark fact sheet. Luckily, there is a place for people like me, where I can unashamedly admire sharks and other animals with fellow devotees. This brings me to my recent trip to the London Sea Life Aquarium, situated in the County Hall Building. The attraction rightly earns its place next to the London Eye and the London Dungeon on the South Bank of the River Thames.

             Obligatory children were ever-present while making their rounds of the tanks, pressing their noses up against the glass and staring wide-eyed at the mysterious animals. That being said, the aquarium is by no means a fun day out solely for kids. I witnessed couples, friends, and full-grown adults admiring in the beauty of the water and its inhabitants. Since we as humans cannot survive underwater, watching animals glide effortlessly around their natural habitat is quite a spectacle, especially when the aquarium accommodates their animals with over two million gallons of water!

             The assortment of animals that can be viewed include jellyfish, sharks, rays, lobsters, piranhas, Gentoo penguins, clownfish, crocodiles, green sea turtles, and seahorses. That’s just to name a few! Each exhibit delves into recreating a natural, realistic setting, based on whether the animal is completely or partially water dependent. In the poison dart frogs’ stomping ground, I found myself surrounded by foliage in a muggy rain forest. After acclimating to that environment, I was struck by an instant chill as I entered the penguins’ arena, a feature that opened in May 2011. Etching my initials onto an icy white surface, it became harder and harder to imagine London existing just outside of those frost-dominated walls. Another section paid tribute to the film Finding Nemo, where sea anemones, clownfish, and blue tangs reigned supreme.

             The animals were truly mesmerizing and watching them was unusually soothing. I could have easily perched on one of the ledges next to a tank and stayed there all day. Rays seemed to be flying above me as they passed by in the surrounding tunnel with an unmatched elegance. In the ray pool, they were even more impressive. They weren’t afraid to get friendly and come up right next to me. A variety of sharks were on offer, from nurse sharks to sand tiger sharks to blacktip reef sharks - my own personal shark heaven! Then again, I am biased towards the ferocious beings, so my elation should come as no surprise.

             The aquarium makes it top priority for visitors to feel connected to the animals, to grant them the respect they deserve. We are merely voyeurs in their territory and I realized just how small I felt compared to something as magnificent and great as the green sea turtle. A comparative size chart on one of the walkways further demonstrated this, stretching to varying lengths of different sized sharks. My mouth was left agape at how very small I would appear underwater with the tremendous whale shark, which can reach 40 feet or more in length!  

             It is important to note that many of the animals housed at the aquarium are endangered. A sad reminder of this exists in information displays next to each tank, where animals are ranked on a scale of not in danger to critically threatened. While the aquarium is indeed an attraction to be enjoyed, an underlying tone pleads with us as visitors to help in animal conservation efforts. The London Sea Life Aquarium plays an active role in practicing what they preach through breeding, seal rescues, re-homing, and campaigns. Did you know that shark fins actually add no nutritional value or taste to shark fin soup? Neither did I, until I started reading the placards placed around the aquarium. Above appreciating the sea creatures, the aquarium spreads awareness.

             After touring the aquarium, I exited through the gift shop, naturally toting my new shark keychain all the way home.

             Visit the London Sea Life Aquarium website here to plan your trip, check for feeding times and offers, and find out how to get involved.

Scarfing Down a Helping of Orwell + Austen

Jessica Schuhle-Lewis, creative mind behind Orwell + Austen, with her stand at the Piccadilly pop-up shop

             When I think scarves, I think chunky, practical, and imposing, but they have been granted a new lease of life thanks to the 2012 launch of Jessica Schuhle-Lewis’ fresh new scarf brand, Orwell + Austen. The cashmere and silk scarves blend saturated candy-color hues and eye-catching prints to form lust-worthy outfit centerpieces. A pop-up shop in Piccadilly opened for a limited time, today marking its last day. Multiple brands were featured, displaying leather goods, clothing, and even tea sets. However diverse, I decided to head down to focus on Orwell + Austen and meet the artist behind the brand’s whimsy.

              Schuhle-Lewis’ section in the pop-up shop was recognizable by the scarves’ distinctive inkblot-like patterns and graceful placements. I was immediately struck by how playful and youthful the scarves were. The tasteful design made even the blacks appear uplifting. On drab winter days, these are the scarves that you want to perk you up, but by the same token, these are the very same scarves that will add zest and character to any summer ensemble.

             Upon meeting Schuhle-Lewis, her passion for her scarf line was undeniable. She has lived in London for 11 years, so will have witnessed a flurry of fads and trends emerge and fade with the ever-changing fashion scene. That’s why she has created something durable and essential. Schuhle-Lewis was more than obliging to speak to me about her vision and motivations. She had a soft demeanor about her to match the softness of her products, not needing to push her message, because she truly believes in what she is selling and she has every reason to.

             I would like to give a big thank you to Rosie Burn and Jessica Schuhle-Lewis for making this interview possible.

Laura Rutkowski: Your scarves are very eclectic and versatile. Where did you find inspiration for the prints?

Jessica Schuhle-Lewis: The first set of prints, so the Leo and the Lily print and the Inca print, came from animals, so they’re all slight variations on quite traditional animal prints. The Lily is almost like a leopard print, but it’s crossed with moths and butterflies as well. Some of the color inspiration also came from moths, which I don’t like in real life, but I love their patterns. The Inca is like a deconstructed snakeskin, so I took snakeskin print and took a really small part of it and blew it up a little bit and then the most recent one, which is the Linden one, is more of a line drawing.

I was in Marrakesh at the Yves Saint Laurent garden, and he [Yves Saint Laurent] used to send out love postcards to key customers every Christmas, I think it was, and one of them is this really cool almost line drawing with a snake twisting around it and I really loved it, so I took a picture of that and then loosely based my design really loosely on that. I flipped the design a few times as well and that’s how I came up with the Linden one. I guess I just see things that I like. I use Pinterest a lot. I’ve found it really useful to find old patterns or textile things and just play around with them a little bit.

LR: What drove you to be interested in designing scarves opposed to any other clothing items?

JS-L: Well, because I had the legal background [Schuhle-Lewis was a lawyer], I didn’t go to fashion college. I grew up in a family of artists, so my dad’s an artist and a poet. My brother’s also a really good graphic designer. He does beautiful illustrations and things like that. I’ve always drawn and painted since I was little. I love fashion, but I don’t know how to make the perfect shirt. I don’t know necessarily the fit and through what I’ve been doing, I’m learning a bit more of that through the people I meet, but for me, because I’d always drawn and painted, a scarf is kind of like an actual canvas. 

LR: Oh yeah, it works with everything pretty much.

JS-L: Exactly. I love wearing scarves and I just thought, I really want to make a fashion piece, but I’m not going to pretend that I know everything about the structure of fashion, so I thought take what I know and apply it. 

LR: Describe your ideal Orwell + Austen girl to embody your brand. 

JS-L: I think she’s quite versatile to be honest. When I initially started doing the scarves, I was thinking more of a city girl, because I was a city girl, and when you work in the city, there’s very much a uniform and if you want to differentiate a little bit, but you can’t go crazy, a scarf’s a good way to do that. Then, as it’s continued, I have an idea of the type of brands that she would buy and the type of things she would wear. I think she would mix high street with high-end accessories - bits of Céline, quite simple pieces. Again, quite a simple base uniform, good quality, but likes to mix up things with accessories, so likes a fun scarf.

LR: I like doing minimal outfits and then if you add a scarf, it finishes everything off.

JS-L: Yeah exactly, and I love contrast as well, so I’ve been doing a few Polyvore things to show how I would wear it or I’d love customers to wear it. So the new Linden one, that turquoise, I found this gorgeous cashmere by Bora Bora, a mustard sweater, and it looks so cool with the really bright turquoise and the mustard, but then everything else is quite simple - androgynous accessories, a white shirt.

LR: A lot of fashion houses are known for their scarves and making really high quality scarves, so is there any one brand that you really want to emulate or that you particularly like?

JS-L: That’s a tricky question, because I kind of also started the scarves because I love a lot of the prints that come from the fashion houses, but I wasn’t that enamored with the quality. For example, Alexander McQueen’s skull motif, it’s super cool, but his 245 pound scarf is a modal mix and modal’s a synthetic fabric and I think if they can get away with having a cheaper fabric because of the name, I almost feel like if you’re buying that, into a luxury product, you should really be getting a luxury fabric as well.

I love McQueen, but I think I haven’t really seen that much on the designer end that’s at the 250 to 300 price point that’s actually cashmere and not cashmere mix, which is where you take 90 percent modal and you put 10 percent cashmere in.  All of my scarves, the lighter ones, are 70 percent cashmere with 30 percent silk, but no man-made fabrics. It’s all natural.

LR: What is your favorite way to style a scarf?

JS-L: It depends on the season. I really love to get cashmere sweaters. I love silk shirts and a really loose big scarf keeping you cozy. In the summer, I tend to tie them or fold them a little bit more, tie them not like a tie, but in a bow - a little more chic, a little more close to the body, as opposed to really loose.

Kerry O’Brine shows how to style one of Schuhle-Lewis’ scarves in the pop-up shop using a sweater from her own clothing line

LR: How does your line represent your artistic abilities and interests?

JS-L: I just think I’m quite eclectic. I love color. I love pattern. I love print. I don’t want anything to ever be too simple, so I think it represents those aspects of me - my love of color, love of pattern, love of print. Natural fabrics as well are so, so important to me. I love good quality. I know that it’s hard because people have budgets and it’s sometimes difficult, but I always think buy the best that you can afford.

LR: A scarf is something you always wear and come back to.

JS-L: Exactly, and as you wear it, it gets better and better. Good cashmere, the more you wear it, the softer it becomes and you can pass that on. It represents the artist in me. It’s almost like I’m always wearing one of my pieces of work – around my neck or however I style it. They’re so personal to me as well. They really do feel like my little babies and when you put them out there, you’re really worried what people are going to think, but I love them all, so I feel like I love them, I hope I’ve got good taste, and I hope other people love them.

LR: They have sort of a modern twist, which is nice because they’re simple, but interesting.

JS-L: I think if you’re going to buy a quite expensive scarf, mine are I’d say mid-price, I think you want something as well that’s going to be a little bit more than just plain. You want something a little bit fun. You want people to look at it and go, “Wow, that’s unusual.” That’s what I’m always trying to think of.

 LR: How does it feel to see your finished product out and on display?

JS-L: It’s really cool. I’ve never actually done the display before. We’re in Wolf & Badger and they usually take care of that side of things, but it was so fun to have it all set up. It’s a bit of an eclectic collection at the moment, because you’ve got a mix of newer seasons and older seasons, which to see all of the stuff that I’ve done and what I’ve achieved is kind of cool because I think when you’re doing it, you’re not necessarily thinking, “Wow, I’ve got to this place, I’ve got to that place.” You’re just dealing with the everyday, but it’s quite nice though. I feel quite proud.

LR: If you had to choose one scarf, which one would you pick you as your favorite?

JS-L: It changes a lot. Over the summer, I was absolutely in love with the Inca in Sea + Sand, the blue dip-dye one. I wore that so much. The Inca in black and gray now I’m wearing more. They’re not out yet, but coming out in the next couple weeks are two Lily prints I’ll show you later and there’s one that’s really red with just black and there’s another in khakis. I was wearing one of them yesterday because the weather was obviously a little bit cooler with a really cool purple-pink sweater and lovely contrast, so I think every time I do a new one, that becomes my favorite.

The new Autumn/Winter collection includes the red and green scarves seen here with the Lily motif in a bigger style

LR: What is in store for the future of Orwell + Austen? What do you hope to achieve with your brand?

JS-L: We’re just turning our focus now to going into some big department stores, places like Liberty. I spent the last year just figuring it all out a little bit, getting Wolf & Badger stocked is good because you get lots of customer feedback and because they’re all limited runs, I can change things up quite easily and take feedback, so people wanted slightly bigger, so I’ve done slightly bigger and playing around with color a little bit more, but I’d love to be in somewhere like Liberty. That would be my dream. I’d just love to keep designing and keep evolving. Eventually, I’d like to add maybe some clothing pieces of some kind one day down the line, but like I said at the beginning, I’ve got a lot to learn in that area, so I’m trying to take tips, but that would be my dream. 

             Visit the official Orwell + Austen website here to see the variety of scarves on offer. Look out for an upcoming collaboration with Rosie Fortescue of reality television series, Made in Chelsea, fame. The designs have already been completed and Schuhle-Lewis told me that we should be prepared to see the inclusion of geometric prints.