Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Adam Rapp’s slippery THE SOUND INSIDE stuns on Broadway, starring an equally stunning Mary-Louse Parker

• By drediman
• October 21, 2019
• No Comments

Mary-Louise Parker and Will Hochman in Adam Rapp’s “The Sound Inside” at Studio 54. Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

Last week, Adam Rapp’s two-hander The Sound Inside opened at Studio 54. The production marks the tour-de-force return to Broadway of the wonderful, seemingly ageless Mary-Louise Parker, one of the most distinctive American stage actresses of her generation. In Mr. Rapp’s new play – which was seen previously at Williamstown Theatre Festival – Ms. Parker plays Bella, a tenured middle-aged professor of creative writing at Yale University. Although she’s coasted and largely withdrawn herself from the world for many years, she’s forced to reckon with life’s realities when she’s unavoidably confronted by Christopher, an uncommonly gifted but socially-awkward freshman, as well as news of her terminal illness.

I must admit, I’ve had a lukewarm opinion of Mr. Rapp’s playwriting over the years. Only in his intoxicatingly pungent Red Light Winter (a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama way back in 2006) did I take real notice of the playwright. Otherwise, I’ve largely found his works to be frustrating – to varying degrees meandering, self-indulgent, and stubbornly undisciplined. With The Sound Inside, Mr. Rapp has come to a newfound maturity and focus, while still bringing his slippery and unnerving ambiguity to the subtly-wrought psychological thriller. Time and time again, the play took totally unexpected turns that had me gasping at their audacity, but not once did I question their authenticity and necessity to the fabric of the piece. Indeed, the play is as unpredictable and harrowing as life itself.

The Broadway production has been carefully brought to deceptively simple life by director David Cromer, who joins the production straight from his Tony-winning work on the exquisite musical The Band’s Visit. He brings his usual scalpel-like attention to detail to Mr. Rapp’s puzzle of a play, mysteriously shrouding it in shadows and imbuing it with a disorienting sense of free-fall and organically mounting anxiety. As for the performances, the always-intriguing Ms. Parker is simply stunning, exposing the complex layers and contradictions in Bella with extraordinary clarity. It’s a masterful piece of acting that I hope won’t be forgotten during awards season. Playing opposite Ms. Parker – and in stride with her beat by beat – is the young actor Will Hochman in the tricky role of Christopher. He gives a fully-formed portrayal that beguilingly suggests the unfathomable depths of a real artist just underneath the surface.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THE SOUND INSIDE
Broadway, Play
Studio 54 Theatre
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Open run