By Kimberly Rau
Bess Wohl’s “Small Mouth Sounds” opened at Wilbury over the weekend, a quirky show about six people who, in search of deeper meaning and inner peace, find themselves on an offbeat wellness retreat in the woods.
With the exception of one couple, everyone on the trip is a stranger to each other, united in the hope that this week of self-discovery will be the thing that offers answers. The rules include no cell phones, no snacks in the cabin, and a vow of silence.
As you can imagine, that makes for a short script. The show is less about what people say, and more about what happens in the space between words. There’s the secret snacking. The soft crying. The diaphragmatic breathing. As an audience, you learn to watch more closely, pay better attention to the raised eyebrow, the slight shift in body language. The characters learn as well. It turns out when you’re not rushing to fill the silence, you’re forced to confront your own insecurities.
Under the direction of Tanya Martin, this unusual piece about human connection shines, and the cast couldn’t be better at representing Wohl’s deeply human characters.
Amie Lytle and Beth Alianiello play a couple who are trying to navigate some serious challenges. You get the sense this retreat could be make-or-break for them. Lytle and Alianiello have both made strong choices for their characters, and work well together. Harry Aspinwall is a semi-famous yoga instructor, who you can tell already feels pretty self-fulfilled. He ends up bunking with Stuart Wilson’s character, who is anything but self-confident. Naturally, the two butt heads. Aspinwall and Wilson do a great job keeping these characters three-dimensional and realistic. You want to shake both of them, but for different reasons.
Rounding out the six are the two probably most diametrically opposed characters. Dave Rabinow’s character is the oldest and quietest of the bunch, who gets inexplicably bunked with a young, very chatty influencer-type played by Olivia Hodson. Rabinow’s guy follows all the rules; Hodson’s character is sneaking chips into the bunk and spending a lot of the play trying to find cell service. Both are grieving something we never fully get context for, and both Rabinow and Hodson do a wonderful job conveying their characters’ nuances.
And it turns out the teacher (expertly played from off stage by Jennifer Mischley) is deeply human as well, full of contradictions and hiding behind a truly ridiculous persona. “I have recently obtained…email,” she says at one point, with pauses wide enough to nap in. “It is…convenient,” she concludes, which would be pretentious enough even without the obvious disdain on “convenient.” And then you learn the self-proclaimed tech Luddite has a podcast.
The set is a series of three cabin frames, some trees and a couple of paths, designed by Keri King and well-paired with Andy Russ’ sound design. The costumes (Dustin Thomas) are so spot-on for the actors that you wonder if they pulled from their own closets. It all makes for an immersive, if unorthodox, experience. (Note that there are some mature scenes and non-sexual full-frontal male nudity. Wilbury recommends this show for ages 15 and up.)
This is a strong, unique piece of work that will require you to stretch yourself to fully engage with. But if you give yourself over to the pace and tone of the play, and start to pay attention to what isn’t being said, you’re in for a treat.
“Small Mouth Sounds” runs through Feb. 15, 2026, at The Wilbury Theatre Group, 475 Valley St., Providence (inside the Waterfire Arts Center). Tickets may be obtained at the box office, online at thewilburygroup.org or by calling 401.400.7100 Ext 0
