Rupert Spraul and Annie Fitzpatrick Photo by Ryan Kurtz

The Sound Inside commences with Bella Lee Baird (Annie Fitzpatrick) striding down ETC's center aisle and proceeding on a ramp up to the bookcase-backed stage fronted by a glistening, chilly white marble floor and some modest but elegant wooden furniture. An abstract tree at stage left looks white and frozen. Bella notes that snow has come early to New Haven, a mention that has further implications in the story. She introduces herself, almost as if she is a character in a novel. In fact, Bella, age 53, never married, is a Yale professor of creative writing. She teaches a course for aspiring writers, "Reading Fiction for Craft."

She confesses how she recently suffered severe abdominal pain requiring surgery that revealed stomach tumors; her oncologist has told her she is already at Stage Two of metastasis. After that startling revelation, Bella dodges back in time to an encounter with Christopher Dunn (Rupert Spraul). A few days earlier during a class discussion of Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" and its murderous but ambiguous protagonist, Raskolnikov, Dunn blurted out to her and his classmates, "Someday I'm going to write a moment like that."

He stops by her office unannounced for a conversation that is as much narrated by Bella to the audience as it is enacted. He wants to tell her that he likes her course, but he's a curious blend of audacious outspokenness and distracted awkwardness. But he also demonstrates the vocabulary of a prodigious reader and writer. His visit is actually to share with her that he intends to write a novel. He begins to sketch it out for her with story elements that seem forebodingly personal. A strange tension–even attraction–evolves between teacher and student, more intellectual than physical although there's a whiff of that, too.

Rapp's story about writers in many ways is more literary than theatrical, with constant direct address to the audience. His script lacks moments of demanding physical action. Instead, thanks to the way the characters speak their thoughts and describe how things have unfolded, it's as much about thought and analysis as decisive action. We go inside the characters' minds, especially Bella's, whose own writing career has stalled since her first novel received a less than enthusiastic greeting years before. She is intrigued by this precocious young man and does not quite know what to make of him.

She personally undertakes a writing exercise that she routinely assigns to students: Write for 20 minutes without lifting your pencil from the paper. Without fully understanding why, she fills an entire page with the words "Listen to the sound inside." She is mystified as to what inspired this, but it becomes obvious that both she and Christopher need to seek out and respond to interior thoughts and motives.

The Sound Inside offers psychological and moral conundrums that unravel in complex ways. Bella's cancer diagnosis causes her to ask Christopher to assist her with a difficult task. That prompts further soul searching and more stories within the story and possibly toward some subsequent conclusive action. The play is a masterful piece of writing that requires actors of considerable skill. Fitzpatrick, a stalwart, longtime performer at ETC, has never been more admirable or convincing in a role. We see beyond Bella's confident, self-deprecating veneer and understand why she has been stalled in life. Spraul, in his ETC debut, is a young talent who has appeared recently in several impressive ways on other local stages. He convincingly conveys Christopher's brashness and talent but also his need for assurance.

Rapp's script demands sensitive direction, and that's clearly been provided by Brian Isaac Phillips, stepping away from his day job as the artistic director at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. (Phillips began his theatrical career as an acting apprentice at ETC.) He has kept Fitzpatrick and Spraul tightly focused on their portraits and given them a deliberate pace that allows their words time to sink in with audiences during this 90-minute performance. The delicate dance of moral requests and personal self-exploration between them is all the more impactful thanks to Phillips's management of the tale.

The play's ambiguous outcome will surely lead to questions and conversations about what has happened. Suppositions are offered, but no clear answers. Christopher's novella, shared with Bella, employs as an epigraph a line by Dostoevsky from "Crime and Punishment": "We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word is spoken." That's how Rapp's unlikely pair begin and how audiences will be captivated throughout this powerful, mysterious story.

The Sound Inside runs through April 27, 2025, at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, 1127 Vine Street, in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine Neighborhood, Cincinnati OH. For tickets and information, please visit www.ensemblecincinnati.com or call 513-421-3555.