Writers, interrupted

SINGAPORE Repertory Theatre's The Sound Inside is mostly a play for readers and writers, the ones who would lap up its wealth of literary references from Faulkner and Salinger to Vonnegut and Tyler.

When its protagonist Bella Bird (Serene Chen) says she re-reads James Salter's Light Years in her spare time, book lovers would nod approvingly. When her sparring partner Christopher John (Krish Natarajan) mocks Jonathan Franzen for his populist appeal, discerning readers would giggle. But it's hard to imagine this production having broad appeal.

Directed by Cherilyn Woo, The Sound Inside tells an elliptical story of creative writing professor Bella whose life is about to change on two counts. The first is her friendship with her student Christopher, an eccentric and gifted young writer who attracts and exasperates her equally. The second takes place later on, and it'd be a spoiler to reveal it.