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Once the play has been cast and rehearsals begin, the director and the actors will develop further thoughts about the characters and how they should be presented. The text of the play and Stephens' choice of language will provide the biggest indication of how to make these choices. Typically actors will look closely at the text to see:

• what the character says about her/himself
• what the character says about other characters
• what other characters say about her/him

This evidence from the text will help actors to make initial choices about the way their character will develop.

There will be discussions about a character's motivation and why a character behaves in the way that they do. Reaction to other characters and interaction between them is important and this will be explored in rehearsals, workshops, discussions and further investigation of the text. The director will also consider themes in the play and may wish to emphasise some and pay less attention to others. This will further affect decisions about performance and the particular way that the production will interpret the play.

To help stage The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time the theatre company Frantic Assembly used physical theatre to help communicate the motivation or hidden emotions of the characters on stage. For example, during the scene when Christopher visits the train station, the script just lists a series of random phrases:

It was up to Frantic Assembly to translate how this would look on the stage. In order to reflect the sense of chaos in Christopher’s head the ensemble cast performed a complicated routine a lot like a dance in time to the random phrases. This helped the audience to understand how Christopher felt during this experience.

Watch the following clip.

• How does physical theatre help give the audience an insight into the characters’ emotions?
• Why was it important to use physical theatre with a character like Christopher?