Pavilion Theatre Announces Irish Premiere of The Sound Inside
Pavilion Theatre presents a Pádraig Cusack & Half Moon Street Ltd production in association with the Royal Marine Hotel
Pavilion Theatre announces Irish premiere of 6-time Tony-nominated play The Sound Inside by Adam Rapp
Fresh from a sell-out season at the Traverse Theatre, Pavilion Theatre is delighted to bring Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp’s (Red Light Winter) multi-Tony nominated drama The Sound Inside to Ireland for the very first time. This award-winning, gripping play will run for a strictly limited 15-performance engagement from 24 September to 5 October as part of Dublin Theatre Festival 2025.
The Sound Inside is a spellbindingly intimate and haunting story about the intersection between art and the most private corners of the human heart. Bella (Madeleine Potter) a solitary Yale creative writing professor becomes captivated by Christopher (Eric Sirakian), a brilliant, rebellious freshman student. Both outsiders, they embark on a series of provocative encounters filled with razor sharp wit and growing mutual attraction, leading Bella to make a shocking personal request.
The critical response to The Sound Inside has been rapturous on both sides of the Atlantic:
★★★★★ “Magnificent, mesmerising” - The Herald
★★★★★ “Extraordinary” - The Edinburgh Reporter
★★★★ “Intensely moving” - The Times
★★★★ “Perfectly performed… beautifully and enthrallingly written” - The Scotsman
“Both literary and rivetingly theatrical” - The Hollywood Reporter
“Subliminal, sublime…” - The New York Times
“Stunning… hypnotic” - Variety
At the 74th Tony Awards, The Sound Inside received six nominations including Best Play. It also received seven honours at the 2020 Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Broadway Play.
Leading the cast for The Sound Inside is Irish-American Madeleine Potter, known for her work with Merchant Ivory (The Bostonians, Slaves of New York,The Golden Bowl, The White Countess), London theatre (4:48 Psychosis, True West, The Kid Stays in the Picture, Madame Melville), and Broadway appearances (An Ideal Husband, Metamorphosis, The Master Builder). Potter performs opposite rising star Eric Sirakian, widely praised for his turn as Hassan/Sohrab in The Kite Runner on Broadway. The play is directed by Matt Wilkinson with London, Edinburgh and New York directing credits to his name including Psychodrama, My Eyes Went Dark and Red Sea Fish.
Writer Adam Rapp is a Tony-nominated and Pulitzer Prize-finalist playwright whose work includes the acclaimed Red Light Winter, The Metal Children, and the book for Broadway smash The Outsiders. Rapp’s honours span the OBIE, Jeff Award, and PEN/Laura Pels Award, and in 2024, he won the Tony Award for Best Musical for The Outsiders, cementing his reputation as one of America’s most compelling theatrical voices.
The Sound Inside represents a bold new programming milestone for Pavilion Theatre, which has in recent years played host to major Irish and international productions from the likes of Landmark, Druid, Soho Theatre, Rough Magic, Fishamble, BRONKS, Lyric Theatre, Paines Plough and the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company.
Pádraig Cusack, originally from Dalkey, is a producer of international renown having previously worked with the National Theatre, Abbey Theatre, Parco Theatre Japan and Sydney Theatre Company, and on productions such as Nye with Michael Sheen (National Theatre), Long Day’s Journey into Night with Jeremy Irons & Lesley Manville (New York & LA), One Man, Two Guvnors with James Corden (UK Tour, AustralAsia Tour, Broadway), and The History Boys with Richard Griffiths (National Theatre, UK Tour, Hong Kong, Australia/NZ Tour, Broadway – 6 Tony Awards).
“Back in 2023, as the theatre world tried to return to a new normal post-pandemic, I was invited to a reading of The Sound Inside. Eighty-five minutes later, I wanted nothing more than to produce the play - I’d been riveted. Serendipity is a great thing. Not long after the reading, and having just acquired the rights, I got a call from the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh’s premier new writing venue. With just four months to go, they had a gap in their festival programme and couldn’t find the right piece…
And the rest is history: it packed out, received extraordinary reviews, and several invitations to present the show elsewhere.
The one that excited me most was from Pavilion Theatre for the Dublin Theatre Festival. I’m originally from Dalkey, and both Pavilion and DTF were huge parts of my cinema and theatre-going life growing up – it felt like a sort of homecoming.
As for the play itself, Adam, the writer, describes the play as ‘haunting’ and he’s right – it stays with you long after blackout and really provokes so many thoughts and ruminations. I love a night at the theatre which leaves you talking, debating, speculating with pals over a beer and The Sound Inside unequivocally does that. It is thrilling, ironic, upending and damn good theatre!” - Pádraig Cusack, Producer