★★★★

“a taut fusion of gothic storytelling and modern innovation”

Ever wanted to experience gothic horror at point blank range? Jamie Armitage blends spine chilling storytelling with binaural sound to conjure ‘A Ghost In Your Ear’. Part stagecraft, part technological innovation, this thrilling production delivers a mesmerising and uniquely unsettling experience – though it’s not for the faint hearted!

George, an actor between jobs, thinks he’s lucked out when friend Sid offers him a lucrative audiobook gig. But the late-night recording session isn’t all it seems. Step into the booth if you dare.

Jamie Armitage’s second play, with dramaturgical support from Gurnesha Bola, marks a confident stride into horror, charged with tension and gothic atmosphere throughout. Though it leans on familiar tropes (a lone male protagonist, creaking mansion, supernatural presences and lingering misfortunes), its clever use of a story-within-a-story lets our imaginations do the real scaring before an arresting final jolt ensures you’re haunted all the way home. Combining this with Ben and Max Ringham’s binaural sound is a real triumph: every whisper, breath and shudder lands with unnerving clarity, creating an intimate, visceral experience that brings the ghosts uncomfortably close. You could argue the binaural design isn’t as audacious as Darkfield’s freakier experiments, but it’s still strikingly effective.

Armitage’s extensive directing credits with movement consultancy by Robert Strange show we’re in assured hands. Flickering red lights, unnerving black mirror and creepy headphone voice build suspense before the show even starts. Once we get going, the tension is expertly calibrated, simmering through subtle shifts in tone, light and sound. Punchy jump scares draw real screams before well-timed cuts release the tension, the swift resets proving almost as impressive as the scares. The only slight misstep is Sid’s climactic reveal, which lands with less oomph and urgency than expected and briefly breaks the spell.

The Ringhams’ binaural sound design, with associate designer Matt Russell, truly elevates the piece. The music and ambient textures coil the atmosphere like a spring; an unsettlingly intimate soundscape then emerges through the brush of beard, a trembling sob, a racing heartbeat. If anything, the ghostly interjections feel a little sparing and a touch more wouldn’t go amiss. Setting the binaural mics within a grey sculpted head is inspired, signalling the audience’s unacknowledged presence and giving a subtle, eerie glimpse of what’s to come.

Anisha Fields’ set and costume design shape the mood with precision. The suitably oppressive recording studio becomes a pressure chamber for the unfolding action. Two way mirrors create visual illusions and allow Sid’s reassuring presence to vanish at crucial moments. The audience also sits behind glass, deepening the disquieting atmosphere.

Ben Jacobs’ lighting design is a masterclass in deceptive simplicity; what initially seems stripped back reveals intricacy and real subtlety. An almost imperceptible dimming during George’s extended monologues signals our descent into the supernatural, and contrasts strikingly with dramatic flashes, jump scares, and even total darkness at the climax.

This pacy two hander relies on George’s extended monologues to drive the narrative, and George Blagden rises to the challenge with remarkable intensity. Blagden is deeply expressive, gliding from everyday ease to unravelled desperation with disarming fluidity, amplified by sinuous physicality and a rich, versatile voice. Jonathan Livingstone’s jocular Sid provides much needed reassurance and relief, while carefully guarding the darker layers of his story, proving an engaging, assured and impeccably timed counterpart.

‘A Ghost In Your Ear’ is a taut fusion of gothic storytelling and modern innovation, leaving audiences gasping and ominously on edge. Though it may not be for everyone, the binaural sound design creates a genuinely immersive experience which is absolutely worth seeking out.

DR. STRANGELOVE at the Noël Coward Theatre

★★★½

“part broad farce, part skewering satire, a little bit of ’Allo ’Allo, some Airplane, some Partridge”

You have to laugh, don’t you, faced with this confluence of existential crises. War in Europe and the Americans tempted by the charms of a bloviated strongman. Meanwhile the Reds, if not exactly under in our beds, then loitering on our phones, messing with our minds.

Perfect time then for that whip-smart agitator Armando Iannucci, arch chronicler of political chaos, to revive and adapt director Stanley Kubrick’s classic ode to Cold War lunacy, Dr Strangelove.

A great decision and elevated to genius with Steve Coogan who is in harness for not one but four roles – the headliner’s quick change act a marvel in itself.

A reminder: it’s the early 1960s. We’re in the Cold War, everyone’s on edge, there are Commies everywhere, paranoia is rife and cigar chomping General Jack Ripper (a very Trumpian John Hopkins) has gone rogue, sending his pilots to drop a big wing of H-bombs on the Ruskies.

The next two hours of this soaring, mile-a-minute, yet strangely stodgy comedy sees bumbling War Room generals trying to mitigate and resolve one world-ending disaster after another, not helped by a disabling patriotism that won’t let them back down.

There’s a grab-bag of comedy influences on show – part broad farce, part skewering satire, a little bit of ’Allo ’Allo, some Airplane, some Partridge (inevitably) as well as dollops of that Pythonesque love of institutional silliness.

But mostly we’re living in Coogan’s world. He is the lynchpin of director Sean Foley’s ambitious production that attempts – by means of audacious staging, filmed backdrops, crashes, bangs and shoot-outs – to emulate Kubrick’s 1964 silver screen satire.

All eyes are on Coogan as he embodies, in turn, marble mouthed Brit Lionel Mandrake (channelling King Charles); frazzled plot device President Merkin Muffley; bombastic, bombtastic pilot Major TJ Kong; and the eponymous Dr Strangelove, the sinister Nazi (‘as American as apple strudel’) with the Andy Warhol wig and the alien robot arm that has a tendency to heil Hitler. Coogan is at his peak here, whizzing about in a wheelchair in a blizzard of tics, finding layers of comedy in his camp German inflections.

When he is on, he is truly on, when he is off – changing wigs and suits – we hanker for his return.

Coogan makes the most of his audacious bid to match, and perhaps surpass, Peter Sellers – the film’s original star – as the country’s most admirable comic actor. Coogan gives it everything, seemingly understanding the weight of the comparison, even taking on a fourth role to top Sellers by one.

The production is not entirely successful. The convolutions of plot and language occasionally fall for their own complexity meaning the comedy sags. Too many jokes are aimless and dated. And the febrile pacing – one note, full pelt farce, major scene changes, and non-stop calamity – is sometimes too much and not enough at the same time, the cinematic ambition leaving the theatricals stuttering.

But the ensemble cast is uniformly strong. Booming Giles Terera as General Turgidson takes on Coogan blow-for-blow in the War Room set pieces. Mark Hadfield sprinkles baffled fun on proceedings as Paceman, and Tony Jayawardena gives Russian Ambassador Bakov some comedic heft.

The sets (by Hildegard Bechtler) are jaw dropping, the energy phenomenal and the laugh rate about as high as a B-52 over Moscow.

Tag Archives: Max Ringham

A GHOST IN YOUR EAR

★★★★

Hampstead Theatre

A GHOST IN YOUR EAR

Hampstead Theatre

★★★★

“a taut fusion of gothic storytelling and modern innovation”

A GHOST IN YOUR EAR

Hampstead Theatre

Reviewed on 8th January 2026

by Hannah Bothelton

Photography by Marc Brenner

A GHOST IN YOUR EAR

A GHOST IN YOUR EAR

A GHOST IN YOUR EAR

DR. STRANGELOVE

★★★½

Noël Coward Theatre

DR. STRANGELOVE at the Noël Coward Theatre

★★★½

“part broad farce, part skewering satire, a little bit of ’Allo ’Allo, some Airplane, some Partridge”