The Sound Inside – Pavilion Theatre – Review

The Sound Inside by Adam Rapp
Pavilion Theatre presents a Pádraig Cusack & Half Moon Street Ltd production in association with the Royal Marine Hotel

Part of the Dublin Theatre Festival 
Dates: Wed 24 Sep – Sun 5 Oct

We meet a Yale professor by the name of Bella (Madeleine Potter). She’s teaching literature to a class of Freshmen students. They are the usual collection of wide-eyed students, but one young man stands out from the rest.  He is called Christopher (Eric Sirakian). He’s unusual in manner, slightly abrupt and awkward, but his writing is excellent.  When Christopher starts to visit Bella in her office during the afternoon, the two form an uneasy friendship that develops over the course of the play.

Adam Rapp had written three novels and over 20 plays. His 2006 play Red Light Winter won the Obie award and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  This play was first performed in 2018 and was nominated for Best Play at the Tony Awards in 2020.

“Yes, my God is a man. He’s selfish and smokes a pipe and looks like a perverted eighteenth-century French novelist. My God is a fat man with money who can still get it up. His penis is short and stout and stiff as an old book. My God has gamy breath and gout. My God is basically Honore de Balzac” – Bella (Act 1)

With themes of loneliness, friendship and suicide, this is not your regular happy-go-lucky story.  The two characters are very neatly drawn and their complex natures exposed.  Their interplay is sharp and extremely witty. Madeleine Potter is an American actor who has appeared in several James Ivory productions. Eric Sirakian plays the young man, Christopher. Eric is a first-generation Armenian-American actor who attended the aforementioned Yale University, as well as RADA. He recently appeared as Hassan in The Kite Runner in 2022 on Broadway.

This production is very simple with minimal props. Two chairs and some stark lighting create the mood for the piece, but the production makes the most of these two characters.  There is a small problem with the vocal levels of Madeleine Potter, who didn’t quite project to the back of the theatre, but it feels she has lived every second of the words she delivers. Eric Sirakian gives Christopher all the finer points of this difficult, troubled, but gifted young man.

The story of a brilliant young writer and his stifled but equally brilliant teacher has been used before, but it works very well here. You’re never quite sure what direction the story will take, and Adam Rapp deserves the plaudits this work has received. It’s no surprise that Rapp is making big waves, as there is much to explore in his work. The humour is razor sharp, and so many ideas are tossed around that you only wish he’d expand on.  It’s lovely to see such well-written work on stage.

Directed by Matt Wilkinson
Cast: Madeleine Potter & Eric Sirakian

Designer: James Turner
Lighting Designer: Elliot Griggs
Sound Designer: Gareth Fry
Associate Lighting Designer: Christopher Nairne
Associate Sound Designer: Fiona Sheil
Producer: Pádraig Cusack

Photos: Mihaela Bodlovic