“Though it employs very little dialogue, there’s nothing quiet about SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS. Bess Wohl’s luminous play uses silence to dig into the core of human pain, which, like everything unendurable, can also be very funny…and as entertaining as it is transcendent.”
​—Time Out New York.

ABOUT

SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS

BY BESS WOHL​
DIRECTED BY TANYA MARTIN

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In the overwhelming quiet of the woods, six runaways from city life embark on a silent retreat. As these strangers confront internal demons both profound and absurd, their vows of silence collide with the achingly human need to connect. Filled with awkward and insightful humor, SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS is the unique and compassionate new play that asks how we address life’s biggest questions when words fail us.

Written by Drama Desk Award winner Bess Wohl and directed by Tanya Martin for its professional Rhode Island premiere at the Wilbury Theatre Group, you won't want to miss this play "unlike any other" (Huffington Post) that will “leave you moved, refreshed and even enlightened," (The New York Times).

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NEWS + MEDIA

"There's nothing typical about Wohl's Small Mouth Sounds, an hysterical and boldly creative romp like nothing you've ever seen before!  Small Mouth Sounds...[which] features an ultra-talented cast...speaks to all of us who are desperately searching for an escape from a life spent annoyingly-connected to the world and our work with little escape from either. "
- BROADWAY WORLD

 
“Small Mouth Sounds is a quiet triumph that asks of its audience what it asks of its characters: to listen. To sit in discomfort. To find meaning in the awkwardness of being human together. Wilbury prevails in this experiment. By the end, when words return, you find you no longer need them. Sometimes, when we’re feeling overwhelmed with noise, silence says the most. Director Tanya Martin compassionately captures playwright Bess Wohl’s tender absurdity with a quiet power that’s both disarming and deeply human.”
- MOTIF

"Wilbury Theatre Group is bringing the Rhode Island premiere of Small Mouth Sounds by Drama Desk Award winner Bess Wohl to Providence. The play is directed by Rehoboth resident Tanya Martin and features a cast that includes Beth Alianiello, Harry Aspinwall, Olivia Hodson, Amie Lytle, Jennifer Mischley, Dave Rabinow and Stuart Wilson, according to a community announcement. Small Mouth Sounds follows six city dwellers who embark on a silent retreat in the woods. As they grapple with their own internal struggles, their vows of silence are tested by the innate human need to connect.
- TAUNTON DAILY GAZETTE

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CAST + CREATIVE TEAM

Beth Alianiello

Amie Lytle

Stuart Wilson

Harry Aspinwall

Jennifer Mischley

Olivia Hodson*

Dave Rabinow

Small Mouth Sounds
By Bess Wohl
Directed by Tanya Martin

Scenic Design by Keri King
Prop Design by Monica Shinn
Sound + Light Design by Andy Russ
Costume Design by ​Dustin Thomas
​Intimacy Direction by Susie Schutt
​Asst. Direction by Michael Yussef Greene
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Stage Manager, Allison Marchetti*
Asst. Stage Manager, Kerin Hagan

Costume Assistant, Arianna Davey
Technical Director, Jason Sall
Production Intern, Z. Ferrara

House Management by Christine Treglia
​Production Photography by Erin X. Smithers
​Press / Media Inquiries: Niki Healy

​*Appears courtesy Actors' Equity Association, ​the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Bess Wohl is a playwright and filmmaker. Her plays have been produced on and off Broadway, regionally, and internationally and her feature film debut, BABY RUBY, starring Noémie Merlant and Kit Harington, premiered at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival and was released by Magnolia Pictures. She also wrote for the Apple TV+ series, “Extrapolations,” created by Scott Z. Burns.

Her play LIBERATION (Outer Critics Circle Winner, Drama Desk, Drama League and Lucille Lortel noms.) is currently on Broadway, after an extended run at Roundabout Theater Company, and she made her West End debut with a sold out run of BARCELONA starring Lily Collins. Other plays include GRAND HORIZONS (Tony Nominations for Best Play & Best Featured Actress, Outer Critics Circle Honor, Drama League Award nom); MAKE BELIEVE (NYTimes Critic Pick, Best of 2019, Outer Critics Circle Honor); CAMP SIEGFRIED; CONTINUITY; SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS (John Gassner Outer Critics Circle Award, top ten lists in The New York Times, The New York Post, The Guardian); AMERICAN HERO; TOUCHED; IN; CATS TALK BACK and the musical PRETTY FILTHY with composer/lyricist Michael Friedman and The Civilians (Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk nominations for Outstanding Musical). 

Wohl’s plays have been produced or developed at theaters including Second Stage, Manhattan Theater Club, Ars Nova, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, Goodman Theater, The Geffen Playhouse, People’s Light and Theatre Company, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, Vineyard Arts Project, The Pittsburgh Public Theater, Northlight Theater, Ojai Playwright's Conference, the Cape Cod Theatre Project and PlayPenn. Awards and honors include the Sam Norkin special Drama Desk Award for “establishing herself as an important voice in New York theater,” multiple Outer Critics Circle honors, the Georgia Engell Comedy Playwriting Award from the Dramatists Guild, the Athena Award for her screenplay VIRGINIA, MacDowell Fellowships and inclusion on Hollywood’s Black List of Best Screenplays.

Wohl is an associate artist with The Civilians, an alumna of Ars Nova’s Play Group, and the recipient of new play commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center and Williamstown Theatre Festival. In her previous life as an actress, she appeared onstage in New York and regionally, and in numerous films and TV shows where she has given birth, solved crimes, committed crimes, been wrongly accused, and come back from the dead. She is a graduate of Harvard and the Yale School of Drama. 

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LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR

2025/26 SEASON

Learn more about Season 16 at Providence's home for groundbreaking artists and adventurous audiences, including our 2025/26 Main Series productions and special events! Rhode Island premieres of Bess Wohl's Small Mouth Sounds and Girl from North Country by Conor McPherson with music by Bob Dylan, the New England premieres of Dave Malloy's Chamber Musical Octet and Lilana Padilla's How to Defend Yourself and the world premiere of From Here to Where by Umberto Crenca with music by The Gillen Street Ensemble.

2025/26 Season

ABOUT

An award-winning, not-for-profit professional theatre company, the Wilbury Theatre Group engages our community in thought-provoking conversation through new works, reimagined classics and adventurous playmaking. We are idealistic, ambitious, and stubborn in our resolve to create theatre that entertains, enlightens, and inspires.

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