About the Play:

The Sound Inside is a full-length drama by Adam Rapp. A brilliant Ivy League writing professor. A talented yet mysterious student. An unthinkable favour. The Sound Inside is a stunningly suspenseful two-hander that proves: everyone has a story – the question is how it ends.

The Sound Inside takes you behind the ivy-covered walls of Yale, and into New York's literary haven, Greenwich Village. Now a somewhat aimless Yale creative writing professor in her early fifties, Bella Baird is a novelist who, in the seventeen years since she was last published, has almost completely isolated herself from the world. But everything changes when she begins to mentor a brilliant, guarded, challenging first-year undergraduate student named Christopher. The two form an unexpectedly intense bond. As their friendship deepens and the stories they tell about themselves become intertwined in unpredictable ways, Bella makes a surprising request of Christopher that neither knows if he can fulfill. Brimming with suspense, The Sound Inside explores the limits of what one person can ask of another.

The Sound Inside premiered in 2018 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and transferred to Broadway at Studio 54 in 2019. The Broadway production was nominated for six Tony Awards including Best Play. Since then the play had regional premieres at professional theatres across the US. The Canadian premiere was in 2023 at Coal Mine Theatre in Toronto.

Cast: 1 female, 1 male

What people say:

"A gripping mystery. ...90 uninterrupted minutes of tension ... it's about writers: the kind of people who in weaving stories are often in danger of unraveling themselves." — New York Times

"...a stunning character study of someone you'd like to know." — Variety

"An intensely quiet play of two lonely people circling one another, each as wary of the other and both seeming to reach out more as instinct than plan." — Deadline

"A gripping stunner." — Chicago Tribune

"...there's no denying the power of Rapp's play.... It's an insightful, powerful meditation on loneliness, agency and the stories we write –  both for ourselves and for others." — Toronto Star

About the Playwright:

Adam Rapp is an accomplished American playwright and theatre director, as well as a screenwriter, novelist, filmmaker, actor, and musician. He known for bold plays staged at regional and Off Broadway venues such as Red Light Winter, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A graduate of Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, he also completed a two-year playwriting fellowship at Juilliard. He made the transition to television with writing credits on popular shows The L Word, In Treatment, Flesh and Bone, Vinyl, The Looming Tower, and, most recently, American Rust.