Amy Brenneman and Anders Keith (Photo by Mike Palma)
Reviewed by Terry Morgan
Pasadena Playhouse
Through October 1
After reviewing theater for 26 years, I have an opinion that I think of as Morgan’s Law: If a new show doesn’t work, 99% of the time, the problem is the play itself.
It is very rare in my experience to see a production of an original work in which the main shortcoming is the acting or direction, but I have seen hundreds (maybe thousands) of shows in which the writing was weak or forgettable. Often these shows roll into town with awards or nominations in tow, which might mean something if you hadn’t seen as many disappointing Tony or Pulitzer award-winning productions as I have. This leads us to the current L.A. premiere of Adam Rapp’s Tony-nominated drama, The Sound Inside, which is receiving a solid production at the Pasadena Playhouse — but unfortunately isn’t an especially memorable play.
Middle-aged Bella (Amy Brenneman), a writer who authored three critically well-regarded but commercially unsuccessful books, now teaches creative writing at Yale. She seems happy enough with her solitary life until one day she finds out she has stomach cancer. Around this time she reluctantly befriends one of her students, an irascible and opinionated young man named Christopher (Anders Keith). He’s writing a novel and wants her input on it. Although Bella initially resists Christopher’s pushy inroads on her life, gradually she warms to him, realizing she might have need of him after all.
Brenneman, a fine actress with great stage presence, does what she can to invest her character with humor and humanity, and she’s successful despite the fact that the play ultimately doesn’t work. Keith is mostly amusing as Christopher, although the role as written is largely a version of the “pretentious young writer” trope — he finds electronic media too impersonal, is brash and confrontational in his manner and describes himself as “sexually inclined as a parking meter.”
Cameron Watson is one of the best theater directors in Los Angeles, and he gets terrific work from his actors, but even he can’t make this play click. Rapp’s writing is effectively lyrical in some places and witty in others, but the main storyline is very thin and ultimately goes nowhere new rather slowly. I’m not sure what the point of it was, or if it was just meant to be a character study, but it only worked marginally better as that. It’s being promoted as a thriller, which it very much is not. There’s a slightly clever twist towards the play’s conclusion, but then Rapp doesn’t take advantage of that twist in any compelling way, which, if he had, might have improved the play considerably.
The Sound Inside is a well-intentioned effort from talented people, but sadly here that effort doesn’t quite succeed.
Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Ave., Pasadena; Wed.- Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 & 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m.; through October 1. https:// pasadenaplayhouse.org. Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
