Theatre in Review: Small Mouth Sounds (Ars Nova Theatre)Bess Wohl certainly is one intrepid playwright: in Small Mouth Sounds, she assembles six rather woebegone spiritual seekers at a Buddhist retreat house where the teacher -- an offstage voice piped in through the sound system -- reads them a list of rules: No cell phones, except in the parking lot; no eating anywhere but the kitchen; and no smoking or liquor. Oh, and one more thing: "For the length of this retreat, unless otherwise specified, we shall be observing silence." Having blithely outlawed words -- otherwise known as a playwright's best friend -- Wohl more or less sticks to her guns, with the exception of the teacher's lectures and one monologue, plus a few exchanges here and there. It is to her credit -- and also to the work of director Rachel Chavkin and a fine cast -- that so much of Small Mouth Sounds consists of incisive little episodes that reveal volumes about this verbally challenged crew. Indeed, there are moments in Wohl's play when words start to seem highly overrated. Those seeking solace in Small Mouth Sounds include Joan, a middle-aged therapist with a slightly controlling nature, and Judy, her life partner, who is apparently struggling with illness, perhaps cancer; Alicia, a young woman trailing clouds of woe over a recent breakup; Ned, who is trying to get past an astonishing run of bad luck; Rodney, the most overtly "evolved" of them, whose devotion to yoga practices barely masks a nakedly passive-aggressive nature; and Jan, a gentle soul who is mourning the loss of his child. (Interestingly, the script provides extensive back stories about all of the characters, filled with details that in general are not made evident on stage. This may be one reason why the performances nevertheless feel so lived-in.) Small Mouth Sounds takes its time establishing the characters and situation, then segues into a series of exchanges that amuse at first, then gradually reveal layer after layer of sadness and loss. Rodney and Ned sharing a room, engage in a power struggle over Rodney's desire, in direct contravention of the rules, to meditate using an incense stick. The teacher instructs everyone to write down his or her "intention" for the retreat; in an unguarded moment, Judy reads Joan's intention, which contains a devastating revelation about their relationship. Rodney attempts to instruct Alicia in breathing exercises, leading to a clandestine, but very noisy, tryst that does not escape the notice of the others. When Joan starts to weep spontaneously during a session with the teacher, the passing back and forth of a package of Kleenex among the six of them becomes a riotous exercise in crossed signals. Most of Small Mouth Sounds works so well because the cast is fully attuned to the author's wavelength. Jessica Almasy's Alicia cannot help bringing her misery, as expressed by her mournful face, perpetually late entrances, and addiction to sneaked bits of noisy snack food, to the attention of everyone else. She is especially entertaining when wandering the grounds of the retreat house is search of a decent cell signal, and she turns a bit of business involving repeated calls to her ex's answering machine into a memorable comic cameo. Marcia Debonis' Joan is an effective portrait of a woman who is just barely keeping her personal and professional frustrations under control. Similarly, Brad Heberlee's Ned is the kind of guy whose ability to put a smiley face on devastating losses is wearing perilously thin. Sakina Jaffrey's Judy may be quietly suffering, but she is also subject to brilliantly timed fits of laughter, especially when the teacher is pontificating. Erik Lochtefeld's Jan has the glow of real goodness about him, especially in a scene in which he silently shares his grief with Judy. Babak Tafti's Rodney has a neat way of drawing attention to himself when he is supposed to be lost in meditation, striking poses that all but cry out for the admiration of others, but he is also exposed as being surprisingly fragile in the final stretch. Despite all the expertise on display, it is necessary to note that Small Mouth Sounds doesn't always live up to its best moments. At times, it seems almost randomly constructed, and to a certain extent the later scenes repeat what we know about the characters without really going any deeper. The one big monologue is awarded to Ned, in which he lays bare the string of accidents and personal betrayals he has endured, his despair compounded by his volunteer work with an ecological group, which has only given him an enhanced sense of the coming climate disaster. The scene all but demands a virtuoso piece of writing, but it is overstated -- Job would have trouble handling Ned's problems -- and not really credible; that it comes off at all is a tribute to Heberlee's skill. Similarly, an eleventh-hour revelation about Jan earns a big laugh, but it doesn't make sense; it also undermines his reason for being present. An even more fundamental problem has to do with the presentation of the teacher, voiced by Jojo Gonzalez; for most of the running time, he comes off as an airhead, mouthing empty pieties when not spilling his irritations or running off to answer the phone. This has a diminishing effect on the characters -- none of whom seem stupid -- and when the teacher is given a genuinely touching speech at the end it feels more than a little unearned. Still, an evocative atmosphere is maintained throughout, thanks in part to an accomplished production design. Laura Jellinek's set places the audience on two sides in an environment defined by blonde wood beams and white panels. The top four panels above the audience on each side function as screens for Andrew Schneider's projections of rain falling on greenery, sunrises, and, in honor of Jan, who is something of a bug magnet, a shot of a mosquito crawling across human skin. During group scenes, Mike Inwood's lighting unfailingly draws our attention to the most meaningful activity. Tilly Grimes' costumes are small marvels of character observation, especially Alicia's general air of disarray and Rodney's all-too-carefully arranged collection of casual sweaters and scarves, matched with rings and bangles to make a "spiritual" look. Stowe Nelson's sound design includes falling rain, birdsong, and the voice of the teacher. Small Mouth Sounds is the second play in a couple of weeks -- the other is Melissa James Gibson's Placebo -- to have reminded me of the work of Annie Baker. As in Baker's superb Circle Mirror Transformation, an unlucky, melancholy group of characters is convened to take part in a possibly fraudulent series of exercises that promise personal growth. Both plays are marked by long stretches of nonverbal communication that nevertheless let us see into the characters' troubled souls. Wohl isn't yet as accomplished as Baker, but anyone who can in a single season turn out Small Mouth Sounds and the libretto for the musical Pretty Filthy is somebody to keep an eye on. She gets much further with a handful of words than many playwrights do with pages and pages of dialogue. -- David Barbour 
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