DC Theater Arts

Tag: Adam rapp

  • ‘The Sound Inside’ at Everyman Theatre speaks to lovers of literature

    ‘The Sound Inside’ at Everyman Theatre speaks to lovers of literature

    Don’t you love a good book? Do you sometimes feel like reading, but choosing a book and committing to sitting and turning pages (or scrolling screens) seems rather an undertaking, not to mention a little lonely and isolating? Everyman Theatre in Baltimore offers an excellent opportunity to experience literature in theater: The Sound Inside. Described by Director Vincent M. Lancisi as a hybrid of book and play, this production of Adam Rapp’s Tony-nominated script is akin to sitting within the pages of a novel, having it swirl around you, in the company of others, each appreciating it slightly differently.

    Phrases from a press blurb, “suspenseful drama” and “literary thriller,” amalgamate in my mind to “psychological drama,” so that’s what I’m prepared to see. It’s what I do see, though not in quite the way I expected. The show is about writing, about books already written and ones yet unwritten. It’s also about an eerily charged relationship between a professor and a student, portrayed with vigor and nuance by Resident Company members Beth Hylton and Zack Powell.

    Zack Powell as Christopher and Beth Hylton as Professor Bella Baird in ‘The Sound Inside.’ Photo courtesy of Kiirstn Pagan Photography.

    Inside the theater, we’re immersed in uncredited piano music I’ll describe as “moody,” because “haunting” and “mournful” sound melodramatic. Branch-like shadows project onto a scrim and arched proscenium, beautifully crafted to resemble gothic stone architecture. It suggests a cathedral, though it’s almost certainly an interpretation of a specific Ivy League library.

    The Sound Inside is esoteric — many of its literary references escape me. The snappy dialogue moves the plot and reveals the characters, who, to be frankly honest, seem more archetypal than specific. The frequent monologues create location, act as exposition, form interstitials, and offer a foreground for beautifully executed technical effects. The play is set on a college campus, often exploring collegiate topics. There’s no “everyman” character, so I suspect non-collegiate folk might find the whole piece ponderous. At certain points, I in fact am concerned that I find the piece ponderous — and then I suddenly don’t. Playwright Adam Rapp brings us to that edge, and like the snap of a rubber band, flings us away from it abruptly. The script unfolds in a format that at first seems forced, but we gradually become accustomed to it. A single line stands out as misconceived.

    Beth Hylton in the role of Professor Bella Baird begins the performance alone, creating the first tension with her opening lines. It makes the audience a little squirmy because it’s unfamiliar and deliberately artificial. Several minutes of exposition occur before Zack Powell, as peculiar writing student Christopher, appears onstage, at a point when we’ve nearly relaxed into a one-woman performance. From then, tensions between the characters, the script, our expectations, and Christopher’s unexplored backstory accumulate and multiply. By the end of the show, every moment is precariously balanced on the previous one and we lean forward with breathless anticipation.

    The juxtaposition of visual minimalism and lushness creates a tension of its own. Ivania Stack’s costumes are timeless basics, which still provide flexibility to acknowledge transitions from outdoors to indoors, from formal to relaxed. Set Designer Yu Shibagaki initially gives us the magnificent proscenium, a scrim, and a naked stage. When specific location sets roll out, they include idiosyncratic detail and are powered not by pneumatics but by people, which allows the rolling rooms to enter and exit at scene-appropriate speeds, in serpentine or angled paths, with dance-like grace. Some locations are suggested exclusively by the lighting creations of Adam Mendelson (who has a Rep Stage pedigree), while others include ambient atmosphere provided by Sound Designer Tosin Olufolabi. Bridging the space between set and lighting are projections designed by Kelly Colburn, one even provoking a collective gasp from the audience.

    Beth Hylton as Professor Bella Baird and Zack Powell as Christopher in ‘The Sound Inside.’ Photo courtesy of Kiirstn Pagan Photography.

    As the show concludes, we recognize its inevitability, based on early moments that we might have identified as foreshadowing, or they might have been quirky repartee. We don’t know which until the end. Director Lancisi keeps the script’s mystery, inflates the tension, and draws from Hylton and Powell complicated emotional journeys without approaching maudlinism. Moments are delicately played, allowing us to hear unsaid words, and feel unexpressed emotions, based on our own experiences and imaginations. The Sound Inside is an astonishingly fresh take that speaks to our hearts as well as our ears and eyes.

    Running Time: 90 minutes, without intermission.

    The Sound Inside plays through April 2, 2023, at Everyman Theatre, 315 W. Fayette St. Baltimore, MD. Purchase tickets ($29–$79) online or contact the box office by phone at 410-752-2208 (Monday through Friday, 10 AM – 4 PM; Saturday, 12 PM – 4 PM) or email boxoffice@everymantheatre.org.

    COVID Safety: Masks are recommended, though not required. Everyman’s complete health and safety guide is here.

    Accessibility: Everyman emphasizes their commitment to accessibility for all, including those with economic challenges. There are eight seats available for each performance at Pay What You Choose prices.

    The Sound Inside
    By Adam Rapp
    Directed by Vincent M. Lancisi

    CAST
    Beth Hylton as Professor Bella Baird
    Zack Powell as Christopher

    CREATIVE
    Yu Shibagaki: Set Design
    Adam Mendelson: Lighting Design
    Ivania Stack: Costume Design
    Tosin Olufolabi: Sound Design
    Kelly Colburn: Projection Design
    Lewis Shaw: Fights + Intimacy
    Dante Fields: Stage Manager

  • ‘The Metal Children’ at Silver Spring Stage

    ‘The Metal Children’ at Silver Spring Stage

    Silver Spring Stage does it again.

    With Adam Rapp’s The Metal Children, now playing at the Stage through November 21, they once again venture outside DC’s theatrical “safe space” and offer Washington audiences a provocatively curious tragicomedy.

    Kevin Dykstra (Tobin Falmouth). Photo by Harvey Levine.
    Kevin Dykstra (Tobin Falmouth). Photo by Harvey Levine.

    We are all acquainted with that age old expression “art imitates life,” or, to use the Aristotelian term, “mimesis.” Using life as a referent, the writer shapes his story accordingly. Thank you Aristotle.

    Then, in his essay “The Decay of Lying,” Oscar Wilde explores the possibility that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.” In other words, the culture wars are real: the battle is on for hearts and minds: that music in your bedroom, that painting above your bed, that story echoing in your mind’s eye affects your do(s) and don’t(s) even more than you might think.

    In The Metal Children Rapp brings that delicate and sometimes explosive relationship between art and life, artist and audience, onto the stage. And the boundary between victim and perpetrator has never been so profoundly blurred.

    Writer Tobin Falmouth has published “The Metal Children,” a successful novel for young adults that ventures into the forbidden realm of female sexuality. Stacey Kinsella, a high school English teacher somewhere in “the heartland”, has introduced his students to its challenging text. When the school board confiscates the books, student Vera Dundee organizes a massive protest against school censorship that includes the formation of a female tribe whose members vow to become pregnant.

    And that’s only the back story. What follows is a semi-autobiographical, semi-fictional, semi-fantastical tale of mysterious proportions.

    If it leaves you baffled at times, it is because the text’s plot points sometimes allude the audience, making inexplicable leaps, or simply leaps that defy credulity. Nevertheless, piqued your interest will be, and the next time art comes knocking on your door you’ll hesitate just a little before letting her in.

    Kevin Dykstra plays Tobin with a deep cynicism, and an equally deep alienation from the world. Given Tobin’s journey into the heart of darkness, however, where men in pig-masks and young women in heat lure him into dangerous and forbidden realms, I sometimes wanted his loneliness to be even more profound and irrational.

    Richard Fiske and Samantha Sheahan.
    Richard Fiske and Samantha Sheahan.

    Brendan Murray plays Stacey Kinsella, giving the young, enthusiastic teacher an earnestness that contrasts perfectly with Tobin’s despair.

    Alison Donnelly takes on Vera Dundee, and her performance rivets. She not only handles Vera’s powerful, philosophical monologues articulately and with an idealistic conviction, but her intimate scenes with Tobin are emotionally engaging and authentic.

    Finally, Paulette Lee plays Vera’s aunt, Edith Dundee. She captures the character’s simple, good nature effortlessly.

    Richard Fiske, Samantha Sheahan, Kelsey Murray, and Shelby Sours play a host of characters, giving each their moment to shine.

    Ms. Sheahan’s Tami Lake shines brightest. She erupts in an evangelical apotheosis during the school boar meeting on Tobin’s novel: a divine vision enters her body and the resulting expression leaves the auditorium speechless.

    Director Sarah Scafidi handled the difficult text well, even if early on the show dragged a bit. Complex scene changes were handled well by the crew.

    The production team (Sets by Austin Byrd, Lights by Paul Callahan, Costumes by Robert Croghan, and Sound by Niusha Nawab) created a real world context for the decidedly fantastical plotline.

    As in all of Silver Spring Stage’s plays, however, it is the play that steps forth to be devoured. Rapp’s script has its share of flaws, but sometimes, as in Shakespeare, the content more than counters the dangling storyline or baffling character choice or ponderous absence.

    Metal_Children(730x90)-01 (1)The Metal Children plays through November 21, 2015 at Silver Spring Stage – 10145 Colesville Road, in Silver Spring, MD, in the Woodmoor Shopping Center. For tickets, purchase them at the box office, or online.

    RATING: FOUR-AND-A-HALF-STARS11.gif