Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, London – until 31st January 2026
Reviewed by Celia Armand Smith
5*****
Having read that this show is designed to scare, I warned the person next to me as I sat down that I might jump and/or cling to them. Headphones on and locked in, the first thing you hear is the eerie tones of Mark Gatiss making sure that the binaural technology is working. I am not going to lie, I was very anxious about headphones and darkness and thought that I might be the audience emergency that terminated the performance, however I needn’t have worried – it is a very fun, albeit jumpy, time.
George Blagden plays an actor who has been employed to narrate an audiobook with no idea of what is to come. Sid (Jonathan Livingston), the sound engineer explains it’s a ghost story for a new app and it’s going to be fairly straightforward. As they begin, you start to hear faint whisperings in your ears – something that’s almost not there. Sid tells George that he has sound effects lined up like creaking doors and bumps in the night, but it seems as if something else is lurking in the shadows. As the story ramps up, so do the bumps and whispers in your ears.
This beautifully crafted story within a story written and directed by Jamie Armitage pays homage to the best traditional ghost stories. The story that George has been hired to narrate is set in the present day but has the timeless feel of windy moors and drafty grey houses sitting on hills.
The first part is a slow build, peppered with comedy, but tensions are heightened with anticipation of something troubling just around the corner. Every scare is a delight with screams and exclamations from the audience. At one point I took off my headphones and all I could hear was the deep, nervous breathing of every member of the audience. Hampstead Downstairs is a small theatre which is perfect as you are squashed in with your seat mates; every shiver and jump reverberating down the row. Max and Ben Ringham’s sound design and use of binaural technology is put to brilliant use here, capturing every sound in the studio and moving swiftly from ear to ear. The result is immersive, intimate and completely unique.
Anisha Fields’ set design captures the sound studio perfectly, placing all the action behind a glass wall. The transitions from horror to normality and back again happen so quickly that you question what you have just seen. The lighting by Ben Jacobs is subtle and textural, and at some points changes so slowly that you don’t really notice that you are sitting in extremely dim light, straining your eyes to spot shapes shifting in the shadows.
George Blagden as the actor is superb, his character unravelling before your eyes as he and we experience the horror of the situation in real time. Supported by the fantastic Jonathan Livingston as Sid, on stage pretty much all the time, he brings some lightness to the darker moments, allowing us to relax for a second. But don’t relax for too long.
Creative and masterful, A Ghost In Your Ear is an unsettling, sensorial experience that I was nervous to attend but ever so glad I did. A thoroughly enjoyable theatrical start to the year.