Michelle Nightingale and Benji Riggs deft handling of Holden Theatre Theatre’s compelling psychological drama The Sound Inside also confirms director Nick Fagan’s talent for recognising and bringing the world’s most culturally relevant dramas and dark comedies to Adelaide.
This is Nick Fagan’s third play for Holden Street Theatre as its new director in residence and reunites Fagan, Nightingale and Riggs after the brilliant The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in 2024 for The Flying Elephant Company
Michelle Nightingale gives a memorable performance as Bella Baird. Her character is self-assured, intelligent and sometimes distant but we sense her warmth and humour early on.
The Sound Inside by Adam Rapp
Presented by Holden Street Theatres Inc.
Directed by Nick Fagan
11-29 August, 2026
Holden Street Theatres, 34 Holden St, Hindmarsh
When one of her students, Christopher Dunn, played by Benji Riggs visits her office without an appointment we are intrigued by her reaction. He is agitated and brash and seems to force a connection through their love of literature. Bella is intrigued by the young author but initially keeps an appropriate distance.
Benji Riggs embodies the mystery of a stranger, the frustration of being intellectually superior and the intriguing sense of urgency to connect with the professor but the pace at which he delivers the dialogue sometimes obscures the clever references and observations. It’s a pity because we need all the clues we can get to understand his motivation and character.
This clever, taut two-hander opens with Bella Baird (Nightingale), a 50-year-old author and a Yale creative writing professor describing her life as if she were a character in a novel. We are drawn in immediately by her intimate self-narration style and the details of her history and current situation. She tells us she reads James Salter’s Light Years every year in autumn and it becomes one of many books we become curious about after many references are made by both characters.
Her monologues are beautifully constructed with an almost poetic economy of words and liberally peppered with literary references which we would expect.
In the words of Baird the professor, a novel’s ending must feel inevitable. As with all good psychological thrillers there are warnings and clues along the way and in the case of The Sound Inside, there is an inevitable ending which few will see coming.
Author, novelist and screenwriter Adam Rapp was nominated for a Tony Award in 2021 for The Sound Inside and it was this play that marked his Broadway debut in 2019.
Charlie Dippy, Lighting and Sound and Martin Smith Lighting Designer subtly added to the tension and complemented the sparse but neat set which was perfect for the flow of such a dense play. The use of projection was short but very effective.
The play’s references will ignite curiosity about books such as David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (“It’s not a book it’s a fucking planet”) and Fred Gipson’s Old Yeller. Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment provides the quote that sums up the play’s theme: “We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.”
Fagan has given us some of the best plays of the last few years; always confronting, deeply moving, intense dramas. We are looking forward to his next play, The Weir in November.
– Vicki Arnold