one4review | On 10, Aug 2024

The UK premiere of Adam Rapp’s gripping and intriguing play, already nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Play; a teacher and student two-hander set in the academic world of Yale University.

The play begins with Bella Lee Baird, a creative writing professor at Yale, wandering onto the stage and addressing the audience directly, introducing herself and telling us her back story. We learn that she is single with no children, has never been married, but has a love of literature. She also describes her mother’s horrible death some years before from a rare form of stomach cancer. Into Baird’s class, and onto the stage, bursts Christopher Corbett Dunn, a precocious student who does not do social media or abide by arbitrary rules. He is, however, writing a novel and is also a huge fan of Dostoevsky. The two are clearly fascinated by each other, and we embark on a journey towards breaking the ultimate teacher-student taboo. However, just when we think we are looking at David Mamet’s Oleanna in role reversal, the play takes a number of surprising turns, which keep us guessing. When the darkest of favours is requested, the play moves towards its surprising climax, which leaves the audience wondering what on earth will happen next.

Madelaine Potter and Eric Sirakian are brilliantly cast as the two protagonists and The Sound Inside is a captivating and multifaceted piece of theatre that I would highly recommend catching, before the tickets all sell out.

*****

Reviewed by Howard
Traverse Theatre, Traverse 1

Until 25th August (not 12th or 19th)