The Sound Inside - 5 out of 5 stars
Holden Street Theatres Inc.
TICKETS: https://www.holdenstreettheatres.com/the-sound-inside
A mystery. A confession. A choice that changes everything… Nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Play, Adam Rapp’s The Sound Inside is a breathtaking psychological thriller that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew. Acclaimed actors Michelle Nightingale and Benji Riggs make this two-hander elegant, unsettling and impossible to predict. Every word matters, and every silence speaks volumes.
Celebrated author and university professor Bella Baird is
facing an uncertain future when she encounters Christopher, a brilliant and
enigmatic student with a fascinating mind. Drawn together by literature,
intellect and an unexpected connection, their relationship gradually unravels
into something far more dangerous than either could have imagined. The Sound
Inside unfolds with the precision of a finely crafted novel before
delivering a wondrous finale.
The Sound Inside is a rare kind of theatre –
intimate, literary and quietly devastating. It is more like a novel being
written in real time than a conventional play. Across two short acts, it draws
us into the worlds of Bella Baird and Christopher, inviting us to listen not
only to what they say, but also what remains unsaid.
Director Nick Fagan, resident director of Holden Street
Theatres Inc., has shaped his production with a clear understanding of the
play’s delicate balance between realism and imagination. His direction allows
the relationship between Bella and Christopher to develop with convincing
restraint, never forcing the audience towards a particular interpretation.
Instead, Fagan trusts Rapp’s writing, the actors’ intelligence and the
audience’s willingness to sit with uncertainty. The production moves fluidly between
memory, confession, storytelling and dramatic action, creating a world in which
fact and fiction are constantly shifting beneath our feet. His choices are
particularly effective in the moments of stillness, where a pause, a look or a
change in tone can carry as much weight as an extended speech. The result is a
production that feels controlled and intimate.
Michelle Nightingale, as Bella Baird, is phenomenal in this role. Bella carries an estimated 80 per cent of the dialogue, including the opening section, when Nightingale is alone on stage without another character to support her. It is an extraordinary demand, requiring not only vocal control and concentration, but also the ability to establish an immediate and compelling relationship with the audience.
Nightingale meets that challenge with remarkable assurance.
Her Bella is intelligent, observant and articulate, but there is an equally unmistakable
vulnerability. She delivers Bella’s narration with the authority of an
experienced academic and novelist, while allowing small fractures to emerge
beneath the polished surface.
There is a significant arc within Bella’s character, and
Nightingale does more than explain it – she lives it. Her performance invites
us into Bella’s solitude, her complicated relationship with mortality and her emotional
investment in Christopher. Even when Bella speaks directly to the audience,
Nightingale keeps the character grounded in the moment. Her performance is
detailed, controlled and deeply affecting, ensuring that Bella remains intellectually
formidable and emotionally accessible.
Benji Riggs is an excellent choice opposite Nightingale in
the role of Christopher, a university student who struggles to connect with
others. Through his love of literature – including Bella’s 17-year-old novel –
Christopher finds a point of connection with her. He trusts her enough to share
the first draft of a novel he has been working on, a manuscript that is almost
autobiographical.
Riggs cleverly delivers a character who is multi-dimensional
and intriguing to observe. Christopher is awkward, challenging and socially
abrasive, yet Riggs ensures that these qualities don’t become one-dimensional.
There is a restless intelligence within his behaviour, along with an intense
desire to be understood. His Christopher often appears to be testing the limits
of every interaction.
His voice is easy to listen to, allowing the audience to
catch the minor details that gradually become more significant as the
production unfolds. He handles Christopher’s literary enthusiasm with
conviction, while also revealing the instability beneath. In his exchanges with
Bella, Riggs creates a compelling rhythm with Nightingale: sparring
intellectually, or recognising something of themselves in each other. At other
times the space between them becomes charged with unease. His performance keeps
Christopher unpredictable without making him inaccessible.
Fagan’s set design is deceptively simple, comprising four
distinct areas across the stage: a park bench with a lamppost, Baird’s
university office, Baird’s residence and a bare space used cleverly for
storytelling that does not belong in any of the three realistic settings.
Martin Smith’s lighting design is well suited to the
production’s vision, creating subtle distinctions between locations and moods
without distracting from the actors. Charlie Dippy’s lighting and sound
execution is carefully cued, helping the audience follow the flow of the story
seamlessly.
Together, the direction, performances and design create a
production that is absorbing, intelligent and quietly unsettling. The Sound
Inside asks difficult questions about authorship, connection, mortality and
the stories people tell in order to survive. This production honours the
complexity of those questions, leaving its audience to decide what, ultimately,
is real.
- Andrew Broadbent
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