STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

A thin white curtain encircles the center of the stage at The Spot.

And when Denise Simone in her role as Bella Baird draws it back, the magic begins.

For the next 90 minutes the audience is drawn into the absorbing story of a creative writing professor at Yale and her gifted but crude student played by Kagen Albright in “The Sound Inside.”

The Spot will bring Adam Rapp’s two-person character study to life tonight through Sunday, Aug. 28, at The Spot theater in Ketchum.

The play is an engaging drama of two lonely people, each dealing with their own trials and tribulations. It exudes humor at times, and it has a few twists that will keep audiences guessing.

Bella, who calls herself “a walking Social Security Number with an Ivy League professorship,” has written one novel in the course of 17 years—a novel which her student has researched and found captivating, even though the New York Times panned it.

But even as she struggles to write another, she doubles over in pain while reading James Salter’s “Light Years,” discovering later that her stomach is riddled with malignant tumors. It’s a horrifying prospect for a woman whose mother “dissolved into nothingness,” her body attacked by neurofibromatosis where skin tags attached to her adrenal gland and flooded her body.

But she addresses it matter of factly. “I just have good old-fashioned cancer,” she notes.

Her student Christopher Dunn is entitled, intense, unfiltered, and perhaps a little disturbed. He takes issue when she asks him to follow such rules as setting up appointments through a digital calendar. He ventures that novelists these days have to be good at Twitter or commit suicide to have their work matter.

And he comes alive while discussing the double murder in Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.”

“Someday I’m going to write a moment like that,” he says.

As he begins to describe the story he’s working on, Bella becomes intrigued, trying to figure if it’s real or fiction. And, she begins to think, maybe--just maybe--there’s something Christopher can do for her.

This is the first time The Spot has staged a play in the round.

Brett Moellenberg said company members unanimously wanted to do the play because of its language.

“It’s one of the best written plays I’ve ever read,” he said.

“Adam Rapp’s writing is like watching the lives of two people through a kaleidoscope,” added Simone. “With each turn--and there are many--we see a different vantage point that constantly changes the way we view the story.”   

Director Natalie Battistone said she was struck by the specificity of the play when she first encountered it.

“The world of these two characters is our world,” she said. “Dunkin' Donuts, Twitter, Everybody Loves Raymond, cancer. There is no suspension or separation. They are at Yale in New Haven, Conn., during the fall term as winter approaches. Christopher orders Bella's novel at The Crow Bookshop on Church Street. He describes riding the MetroNorth from New Haven to Grand Central.

“Stanislavski said, ‘Generality is the enemy of art,’ " she added. “The precision and crisp detail of the play makes you feel drawn in, or folded into someone else's world

Simone, the co-founder of Company of Fools, said there is much to move her about “The Sound Inside.”

“If I were to choose one, however, it would be how one can stumble along on a path of loneliness and pain and suddenly crash into that person who makes you thirst for life again.  Bella and Christopher collide as if there could be no other outcome.”

Lighting Director Samuel Mollner said he has been moved, watching how Bella deals with hardships.

“This play is unique in the lack of judgment the script has for its characters,” he said. “It’s rare to find a play that really lets the audience come to its own conclusion in the way this one does. The great thing about this play is that each person will take away what they need from the play. Each time I have watched this production or read the script I have come away with something new to think on.” 

The ending, as Simone circles the curtain around, is just as magical as the beginning.

“And when the lights come back up, the beauty of this play in particular is that there will be a different takeaway for each member of the audience,” said Simone.

Battistone agreed: As Bella states in the play's opening, ‘If you do your authorial job correctly, your reader will create the rest.’ "

IF YOU GO

“The Sound Inside,” recommended for those 14 and older, begins tonight and runs through Sunday, Aug. 28.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Wednesday and at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. There will also be 4 p.m. matinees Saturdays and Sundays. A Talkback conversations between audience members, actors and crew will follow the Sunday shows.

The theatre is at 220 Lewis St. in Ketchum’s industrial district. Theatregoers are asked to wear a mask. and donation-based concessions are available.

Tickets are $15 for students and those under 30 and $33 for all others, available at https://www.spotsunvalley.com/thesoundinside