The Sound Inside

The Sound Inside

Studio 54

October 5, 2019

Photo courtesy of The Sound Inside

Adam Rapp’s play, The Sound Inside, is mesmerizing.  It is an intimate story of connection and regeneration.  Mary-Louis Parker is riveting.  You hang on her every word.  She does not leave the stage for a full ninety minutes.  Director David Cromer finds moments of profound insight that pull you deeply into the soul of the main character.  Just when you think you’ve gone as far as humanly possible, Mr. Rapp takes you further through the despair and gives you a glimpse of hope for the future.

Bella (played by Mary-Louise Parker) is a creative writing professor at Yale University.  As she tells her story, she takes notes, writing the sentences that ring with poetic truth.  She tells of her mother’s painful death by a rare cancer that spreads through her stomach.  As she sat with her during her final days, her mother seemed to vanish before her eyes.  She then tells of her own recent diagnosis, not as severe as her mother’s, but no less fatal.  Before the reality of that news sinks in, she jumps back in her story to an unscheduled office visit by a student, a freshman, Christopher (played by Will Hochman).  He tells her how much he loves her class and that he is writing a novel.  Christopher is awkward and unconventional.  He returns the next day to tell her about his novel, again an unscheduled visit.  Their connection has a distance that cannot be crossed.  His third visit is appropriately on Bella’s calendar.  When an unexpected request is made, their fates become parallel, both tragic and optimistic.

Will Hochman & Mary-Louise Parker
OPhoto courtesy of The Sound Inside

This is a must-see play.  Adam Rapp’s writing is profound, prolific, and succinct.  The mood is haunting, mysterious, and at times wonderous.  Mary-Louis Parker and Will Hochman fill the expansive Studio 54 theatre with a resounding and quiet intimacy.  Their performances are honest, natural, and deeply moving. 

The Sound Inside is running through January 11.  Don’t miss this play!

Domenick Danza