The Augustana College Department of Theatre presents the play “Small Mouth Sounds,” March 16-19, at the Brunner Theatre Center Main Stage, 3750 7th Ave., Rock Island.

Ben Gougeon of Quad City Arts will direct the performance. 

A scene from Augustana’s new production of “Small Mouth Sounds.”

In the comedy-drama, six runaways from city life embark on a silent retreat, but their vows of silence conflict with their need to connect. Playwright Bess Wohl noted that everyone in the play is in some kind of agony, “not unlike the rest of us.”

“We all go through ‘broken’ periods of life,” Gougeon said in an Augie release. “These characters come to this silent retreat in the hopes of finding a way to fill the holes and cracks in their lives, and end up finding, through the silence, that the only way to fill the holes is to completely tear them apart.”

A scene from “Small Mouth Sounds,” directed by Ben Gougeon.

This 2016 Critics’ Pick (The New York Times, New York Magazine, Time Out New York) was written by Drama Desk Award winner Bess Wohl (Pretty Filthy) and directed by Obie Award winner Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812). The New York Times wrote: “It leaves you moved, refreshed and even enlightened.” The Huffington Post called it “a play unlike any other,” and Variety termed it “flawless.”

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets can be purchased at the Augustana website HERE.