A Ghost in Your Ear at Hampstead Theatre – review

After a festive season of sequins and starry lights, a plain grey recording studio is what my eyes crave, and a classic ghost story – predictable enough not to make me work too hard when my brain is still full of cheese, but thrilling enough to keep me awake past 4pm nightfall – is just right.

Struggling actor George (George Blagden) has been brought in by sound tech and old industry friend Sid (Jonathan Livingstone) to record a spooky audiobook. Having received no prior script, George is reading the story for the first time, straight into the mic. But, wouldn’t you know, the story just won’t stay on the page.

The stage has been transformed into a recording studio, trapped behind glass, and the audience dons surround-sound headphones to hear the audio being recorded (and whatever ghosts haunt our ears). It’s a very clever spin on an otherwise classic structure: man tells ghost story; man becomes part of ghost story. But this time, the eerie shivers, the strange noises aren’t just on stage, they’re in our headsets.

Worse than any loud jump-scares, there’s nothing quite so creepy as someone unseen whispering in your ear, to the point where I’m half expecting to feel a breath on my neck. That is not a suggestion, dear director, please don’t do that!

On top of that, the story itself has a proper set-up and, most importantly, a proper ending. Where so many subpar ghost stories struggle to tie up loose ends, writer and director Jamie Armitage brings everything to a pleasing completion without over-explaining the mechanics. He’s unafraid to lean into the tropes – the jump scares are formulaic in their build and regularity, but it turns out knowing you’re about to be scared does absolutely nothing to one’s ability to prevent it. The audience laughs nervously throughout, waiting, like a rollercoaster, for the big drop.

Blagden begins a little uncomfortably when he should be most relaxed, but he’s an excellent storyteller and excels as the tension grows. Livingstone is brilliant as the supposed sidekick, piping up jovially only to point out how irrationally George is behaving, or so we’re to believe.

You might think A Ghost in your Ear would have been better suited to October’s spooky season. But on a bleak, cold January night, what better than a good haunting tale to get your blood pumping again?