The Sound Inside

by Adam Rapp

"The closest thing that the American theater currently has to a David Foster Wallace, Rapp can give you the head rush of sophisticated literary allusion and unreliable narrative trickery � la Dostoevsky, and yet talk of Plano, Illinois, and let you know that he knows exactly how it feels...A gripping stunner of a play." --Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

When Bella Baird, an isolated creative writing professor at Yale, begins to mentor a brilliant but enigmatic student, Christopher, the two form an unexpectedly intense bond. As their lives and the stories they tell about themselves become intertwined in unpredictable ways, Bella makes a surprising request of Christopher. Brimming with suspense, Rapp's riveting play explores the limits of what one person can ask of another.

Genres: Plays, Fiction, Audiobook, Contemporary, Drama, Short Stories, Theatre

86 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 14, 2020

About the author

Adam Rapp says that when he was working on his chilling, compulsively readable young adult novel 33 SNOWFISH, he was haunted by several questions. Among them: "When we have nowhere to go, who do we turn to? Why are we sometimes drawn to those who are deeply troubled? How far do we have to run before we find new possibilities?"

At once harrowing and hypnotic, 33 SNOWFISH--which was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association--follows three troubled young people on the run in a stolen car with a kidnapped baby in tow. With the language of the street and lyrical prose, Adam Rapp hurtles the reader into the world of lost children, a world that is not for the faint of heart. His narration captures the voices of two damaged souls (a third speaks only through drawings) to tell a story of alienation, deprivation, and ultimately, the saving power of compassion. "For those readers who are ready to be challenged by a serious work of shockingly realistic fiction," notes SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, "it invites both an emotional and intellectual response, and begs to be discussed."

Adam Rapp’s first novel, MISSING THE PIANO, was named a Best Book for Young Adults as well as a Best Book for Reluctant Readers by the American Library Association. His subsequent titles include THE BUFFALO TREE, THE COPPER ELEPHANT, and LITTLE CHICAGO, which was chosen as a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. The author’s raw, stream-of-consciousness writing style has earned him critical acclaim. "Rapp’s prose is powerful, graphic and haunting," says SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL. [He] writes in an earthy but adept language," says KIRKUS REVIEWS. "Takes a mesmerizing hold on the reader," adds HORN BOOK MAGAZINE.

In addition to being a novelist, Adam Rapp is also an accomplished and award-winning playwright. His plays--including NOCTURNE, ANIMALS AND PLANTS, BLACKBIRD, and STONE COLD DEAD SERIOUS--have been produced by the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the New York Theatre Workshop, and the Bush Theatre in London, among other venues.

Born and raised in Chicago, the novelist and playwright now lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 *

Thanks to my GR's friend Barbara for drawing my attention to this one! 👏

I applaud the performance and special effects on this Audible...certainly a 5 plus!! outstanding!
The story is a solid 4 for me.

This was a Broadway play (nominated for several Tony Awards) that starred Mary-Louise Parker and Will Hochman. I think it is fantastic that they both recorded this play for Audible. So much packed into this short story about a Yale English Professor and her young student as they discuss books, and life while things get intense. There is more going on with both characters and the story leaves you thinking at the end.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gut punch! I am amazed at how author Adam Rapp could write a 90 minute story that is emotionally and incredibly moving. “The Sound Of Inside” is an audible original freebee narrated by Mary-Louise Parker and Will Hochman. Parker’s character is Bella who is an English professor at Yale. A student of hers comes into her life at a tragic moment. Bella learns she has cancer and is contemplating life. Her student is exploring his own life, as students do. Their discussions are fun to listen as they critique major literary works of fiction.

This was a Broadway play which was nominated for six Tony awards. I believe it. I find it amazing what Rapp was able to communicate in such a short time. I highly recommend this for a quick listen.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary-Louise Parker and Will Hochman narrate this
90 minute Tony Award play (six Tony’s).

The performances were excellent.
but I missed a little, due to a laughter frenzy ...
It could not be helped ... it’s Sunday party time....
Paul was taking my super-duper home-style-exercise class...(family discount), while listening to
this Audible-Freebie.

It kept playing -talking on - and Paul and I kept laughing ...on & on...
NOTE... nothing about this story is funny....
But....sometimes things just happen.

Before I had a chance to get up off the exercise floor and
walk over to a table where my phone sat, we learned the ending -(a punch of one too), but missed a little dialogue.

Paul and I both give it 5 stars..
haunting & powerful.
We may have lost -just a little - of the dialogue, but it’s the ending people will talk about.

Good... VERY GOOD!

Thanks, Iris 🪁

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was surprised how much I enjoyed this. I can't remember the last time I listened to a play. A professor, a student who is a budding writer, literary discussions and an important request that turns into a weird twist of fate. Another interesting audible freebie.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this two character play, a Yale creative writing professor bonds with one of her pushier students over a book that he is writing. Their relationship goes in an unexpected direction. The ambiguous ending of the play leaves the audience questioning everything that went before.

I listened to the audio production of this play, performed by Mary-Louise Parker and Will Hochman. It is available on Audible as an Audible Plus selection. I previously saw this play in New York with the same cast and thought it was excellent. I liked it just as much the second time around.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free for Audible-Plus members.
Performed on Broadway at Studio 54 by Tony, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Mary-Louise Parker and Will Hochman.

****************

If I had been told what this was about before picking it up, my hunch is I wouldn’t have given it a try. What a mistake! I will tell you how the piece affected me, but no more. Go into it with just the barest of information and observe its impact.

First one is made curious, and then you sit glued.

The play is emotive and thought provoking.

*If you are a fan of Dostoyevsky, this is for you.
*Have you read and loved Light Years by James Salter? This is for you.
*Do you think sometimes about taking your own life? This is for you.

*Authors cannot help but write of themselves.
*A teacher cannot stop correcting what others say and write. A good teacher cannot stop being a teacher.
*Have you noted how with just a quick glance one can feel an attraction toward another person, a complete stranger?!

My title for this play would be—A Gift From a Stranger.

Listen to this soon! It will take less than an hour and a half of your time. Grab it now. You don’t want it to disappear. It is suitable for adults.

[Jemppu · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a doleful delight; the creative narrative device instantly inspiring, the irreverently honest voice of the narration and the exchanges solidly diverting. Beautifully human, hilarious, and evocative in solitary stillness. All in a familiarly distinct Adam Rapp style.

Persuasively performed, excellently accompanied and put together production.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm fairly sure in production (especially with the sublime Mary-Louise Parker in the lead) this plays like gangbusters, as evidenced by all the rapturous reviews, but it didn't quite merit 5 stars on the page. While I loved all the literary allusions and jokes, both characters struck me more as constructs than as actual people, especially Christopher - whose motivations never became quite clear to me... and I was left with questions (not necessarily a BAD thing), not least being the meaning of the title (which is mentioned at one point, but didn't make much sense). Wish I could have made it to NY to see it though.

[PS: My favorite Rapp play remains his Pulitzer finalist [book:Red Light Winter|167708], which I DID see the original off-Broadway production of ... which starred a (then) unknown actor named Christopher Denham, who was incredible and quirky. I can't help thinking that Rapp named his character here Christopher Dunn in homage, as he would be terrific in the part ... if he weren't now twice as old as called for!)

[Alice4170 🌙 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 ⭐️
This was definitely a weird one.
I did a buddy listen with my roommate while we weee in the car.

[david · Rating 5 out of 5]

A strong play.

Two characters; A middle-aged Creative Writing Professor and a freshman student who attends her class at Yale University.

They are equally impressed with the other’s writings.

It brings them closer, separately.

Impressive.

[Jon Zelazny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smart, but fairly standard May-December college affair unfolds the way you'd expect, until instead of, y'know, 'doin' it,' the lonely, brittle professor asks her brash, sensitive pupil to help her commit suicide.

Daring, eh? Powerful! And, if you think about it, it's the sort of twist that would work in pretty much anything:

BIFF: Pop, what are you doin' down there?
WILLIE: Be a sport, Biffo. Turn on the gas for your old man.

BLANCHE: Will you help me put an end to all my loathsome torments?
STANLEY: Are you familiar with the Napoleonic Codes?

FELIX: I've never used one of these things. Where does the silencer go?
OSCAR: Between your teeth!

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully and eloquently written! Sometimes the quietest play make the most sound.

[Kaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Are you an Audible-plus member? (This is a freebie!)
2. Do you remember Mary-Louise Parker from the TV show Weeds?
3. Can’t commit to a novel right now because your attention span is next to nothing?

Hi, it’s me! 🙋‍♀️

5 stars for a fantastic audio performance (1 hour 25 minutes)! 4 stars for a tale that keeps us wondering what will happen next, full of foreboding about life-and-death matters involving terminal disease, murder, suicide and assisted suicide. I’ll say no more!

Mentioned books:
-Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
-“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
-Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
-Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
-The Wild Palms by William Faulkner
-Light Years by James Salter
-An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
-Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
-Watt by Samuel Beckett
-The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
-Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

[Esther Kruman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This play was too cynical for me. It made me feel things that I did not want to feel. (Mostly anger at this depiction of a young writer.) I was unconvinced that the characters were real people, to the point that I spent much of the play thinking that Christopher was a hallucination. Why would a creative writing professor be enamored with a freshman who embodies such awful stereotypes about writers? The only explanation that made sense to me was that he came from her own mind—a manifestation of her own anger, meant to help her come to terms with illness. Alas, this was not so!

Christopher is explosive, pretentious, and morbid. He hates (and I do mean HATES) email, Twitter, fancy coffee, and his classmate "stealing" a word from his beloved Infinite Jest. When he decides to write a novel, he abandons his expensive laptop in favor of a vintage Corona. I could smile at his æsthetic if he were earnest instead of angry, but this isn't really a man who loves typewriters. This is a man who hates the world he inhabits. I'd think a 53-year-old Yale professor would roll her eyes, not fantasize!

I usually suspend what little disbelief I have with joy. Here, I found myself wondering about Yale's policies, which I assume would prevent this entire play. Christopher's outburst in Bella's office (particularly his rhetoric about suicide) is so far beyond a red flag. I'm surprised that she doesn't report him to the dean. I'm alarmed—unsympathetically alarmed—that she doesn't at least direct him to counseling services. She treats him like a character (in the eccentric sense) instead of her student.

Bella's behavior towards Christopher troubles me. He is her underage student. Yet she asks him out to dinner, brings him home, gives him wine, tells him she had a great ass when she was younger, asks him about his love life, lets him spend the night… They don't have sex with each other, but they don't need to. The line has still been crossed.

I've seen many people comment on the "surprise" ending, but it's so clear from the very beginning that Chris is going to commit suicide. In their very first conversation, he outright says that writers need to commit suicide for their novels to matter. He's a creative writing student. And then he decides to write a novel..

The production itself was high-quality and well-suited to the audio format. The actors were expressive and I could easily visualize them. I just didn't like the characters or what they stood for.

It is a rare play that gives intimacy without humanity. We are in desperate need of both.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard for me to separate the text from the stunning production that recently played at Studio 54. The play does read well, though some of the mystery of how we are supposed to receive the characters - is Bella narrating reality or fiction or mix of both? - loses some of its enchantment when reduced to the page. There are many themes running throughout the play: creativity, grief, writing, etc., but something that moved me immensely about the piece is its portrayal of loneliness, and the ways loneliness can shape our experience of the world and others.

[Dhwani Shah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first time I have listened to an audiobook. I understand the appeal, it feels like someone is sitting inside your brain and whispering words. I can do more of this, I presume.

This play is so lovely, with its twists and creeping dread. I just love the works that reference themselves and this is full of that. Repetition of dialogues and images perpetuate a secret language, a vocabulary with the readers. It felt like I had an intimate relationship with Bella, of course it felt so because of her voice that pervaded my senses and made it impossible to think about anything other than her and Christopher. Adam Rapp uses the perfect length of sentences to form his narrative. He uses the perfect words. The tale is bleak, it is about discontentment and loneliness and at times, it manages to be witty. Recesses from the ache. The sounds flow like a melody composed with utmost care. The performances are brilliant.

It was a beautiful experience. The cues were perfect. I stopped breathing followed by sharp intake. But I also think I will only listen to play audiobooks. Even though I loved it, there was an acute absence of words that I couldn't help feeling. It was loneliness. There were phrases I wanted to read ten times. But then I could listen to her counting and that is vindication enough.

[Dawn Todhunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend a glass of wine before listening to this play. At least have one after. You'll need something to blur the intensity a bit... unless you start at 6 am and finish before 8 am. Drinking at that hour is generally frowned upon. I'm a rebel, but not that much of one. So, I'll spend my day being a little shaken every time some part of it comes to mind. I suspect I'll be wrestling with this one for a while.

[Sigrid A · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm cheating here because I saw a production of this yesterday at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but I want to make sure to remember it. I hadn't heard of this play, but it premiered in 2018/19.

This play is intense in all the best ways. You're brought immediately and intimately into the main character's mind as she narrates her life as a creative writing instructor at Yale. She's cynical and raw and her story is completely compelling. I got worried when she starts a friendship with an undergrad who's writing a novel, but don't worry, it's not a sexual harassment story. Oh no, it is something else entirely, and what it is is amazing. If you can't see a production, read the play.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

This was… bizarre. Not necessarily in a bad way, but in a “I don’t know how this makes me feel”, way. However, I do feel that Rapp is a talented writer who knows how to write some very interesting dialogue; I’m just not sure how I feel about this play as a whole.

I’ll need some more time to process before I can give a full review.

[Canavan · Rating 5 out of 5]

✭✭✭✭½

[Avid · Rating 5 out of 5]

#1 audio book I have listened to so far this year!! The poetic prose, unforeseen twists, captivating imagery and so much more hand me entranced through the entirety. Simply outstanding from start to finish.

This was a free audiobook of a play I have not heard, seen, nor read before. I was not overly drawn by its summary but it was better than the other choices offered. This was an extraordinary performance, story, and clearly showed a passion for writing. It takes a deep dive into your view on life and my God the imagery was phenomenal. The relationship between the two main characters was intense and brought out your own questioning into play rather than simply listening along. In fact, the entire book was written so well it was like going to a famous art exhibit and being left alone to interpret the artist's intentions they wished to convey to others in with their piece of work without them around to confirm or deny your accuracy. Very thought provoking.

I absolutely recommend this book and will read it again in the morning. ENJOY!

(If not free and you enjoy well written literature this is a book I would gladly pay for. 👍)

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this play, a Yale literature professor and college freshman banter about Dostoevsky, writing, and the current state of technology. From a writing standpoint, there are moments when the dialogue is a little obsessed with itself, pompous with what the voice of academia "should" sound like--all the while blurring lines of appropriate boundaries for a professor and realism for a student. It isn't a true look at an eighteen-year-old boy, but a theatrical view of what that boy *could be* like if written by a committee of slightly pretentious writers. Once you get over that lack of authenticity, you can enjoy the remaining art. The plot is tight, with great, consistent use of breaking the fourth wall. (The professor's relationship with the audience is more primary than that to the student.) The ending is also one that sneaks a punch, and I can only imagine the sense of "whoa" had I seen it on stage, instead of reading it on a page.

[Adrianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this so much more than I initially thought I would based on the synapsis. Too cerebral. Too full of self-importance. Indulgent. However, I was immediately blow away by the voice acting for this piece (which should have come with a trigger warning for suicide). I just learned this was a play on Broadway. Makes sense. I wish I had seen it! What a treat that would have been. It was written to be seen and heard. Mary-Louse Parker and Will Hochman perform Andrew Rapp's deeply literary and emotional powerhouse and by the end I was left in a state of disbelief. Inevitable. The ending should feel inevitable. The ending shouldn't feel inevitable. It was crushing disbelief.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a lot. It's easier to read and visualize than a lot of plays. There is a lot of description in the narration, which helps. I liked the story. I felt the tension. I think this would be thrilling in an intimate theater with two talented performers.

[Micah Unice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I wish I’d heard this last year. It would have helped.

[Rhonda A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up a 3.5 review. It was “okay”…

[Hanna Auer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I dont know...I knew this was going to be five stars immediately... it was a five-star play, too. I know I don't see a lot of plays but I sure do read a lot of books and these were five star words. xoxoxo

[Snonono · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps I would have given this three stars had I read it on paper. As it was, I listened to it on Audible and even though it wasn't my cup of tea thematically, the quality of the performance was so good that it bumped the whole thing up a notch for me.
Kudos to the performers, sound engineers and producers who worked on the Audible version. A very enjoyable listen.

[Keren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't find this mysterious at all but rather a study of the loneliness and isolation of illness, both mental and physical, and of grief. The intimacy of the characters felt both inappropriate and authentic. The dialogue was abrasive yet vulnerable. I was surprised at the end.

[Yourfiendmrjones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike Red Light Winter which was brutally disappointing, its study of misogyny dancing back and forth between a depiction of female exploitation and hate and actual misogyny, this play shines. Featuring a young male college student that puts the reality to Salinger’s lie, the play is ultimately about the middle aged Yale professor learning to fight for her life, as a result of interacting briefly with the young man. Maybe I loved it because it’s so much better than Red Light Winter but I hope not. I could have stayed for another act with Bella Baird.