PicksInSix Review: The Sound Inside
YOUR HEART WILL SKIP A BEAT
Before a line of dialogue is spoken in Adam Rapp’s brilliant, haunting play “The Sound Inside”—the first offering in Goodman Theatre’s three-play LIVE series directed by Robert Falls—your heart will skip a beat as the stage lights rise to a golden hue cast across the sparse Owen Theatre from a nearly impossible vantage point high above backstage right. You feel a rush of expectation at the glorious sight—after more than a year on pause—as cast and camera crew filter in surrounded by a captive audience, all positioned in the best seat in the house. Your house.
By the time Bella (Mary Beth Fisher) and her student Christopher (John Drea) meet face-to-face in Bella’s Yale office, we already know a lot about the creative writing professor and author who is currently engrossed in discussions with her students on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Bella is a loner, unmarried, no family or recent relationships, and is very set in the ways of her lifestyle and rules of etiquette for interaction with her students.
You immediately get the sense that the unscheduled meeting between the 57-year-old professor and 19-year-old student, though confrontational at first due to Christopher’s youthful radical demeanor, develops into narrative exposition adjoined with complex, interwoven conversations divulging kindred spirits and commonality. You are literally sucked in to wondering what may happen next.
The expertly paced, evolving drama is a stunning reminder of the power of live theatre. Multiple cameras explore the professor’s office, a restaurant, various rooms within her apartment, a steamy, provocative scene that begins at a local bar and ends in a no-tell motel, and a treatment center. All the while, Fisher’s impassioned portrayal of a life in crisis draws us in deeper, positing questions of life, death and morality at every turn. It is easy to see the intellectual attraction that develops between Fisher and Drea, who is making a fine Goodman debut in a role that showcases a complex character whose youthful arrogance melts into twisted admiration for his mentor with dire consequences.
What is thankfully missing here is the commonplace hardware of our virtual age. Gone are the annoying lavalier microphones, ring lights and faux backdrops. The handheld camera operators move effectively and efficiently from scene to scene enhancing the narrative elements of the story. Impeccable sound and crisp staging allow the gripping and suspenseful storyline of “The Sound Inside” to unfold effortlessly.
Live performances continue through May 16. The May 13 opening corresponded with the announcement that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) was lifting mask restrictions. I could not help but wonder as I watched that sometime during the Goodman’s LIVE series run through July 18 an in-house audience might be able to attend a performance providing a glimpse into what will surely be the next generation of the performing arts already imagined–a hybrid combination of live and virtual patrons expanding audiences worldwide to exciting new opportunities.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
GOODMAN THEATRE
presents
THE SOUND INSIDE
through May 16, 2021
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