A Ghost in Your Ear

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While Jamie Armitage’s A Ghost in Your Ear is only intermittently scary (though those scares are worth the price of admission,) it is a chilling ghost story expertly told. Both written and directed by the British Armitage (who also srtaged both the musical Six and David Hare’s Straight Line Crazy in New York), this is a collaboration with remarkable sound designers Ben and Max Ringham (the Tony Award nominated Prima Facie and A Doll’s House, as well as Waiting for Godot and Cyrano de Bergerac in New York). Owen Campbell and Lucas Iverson, the two-member cast, keep your attention riveted to the story being told as well as lighting designer Ben Jacobs who keeps dimming the lights to create a very spooky environment.

When the audience enters Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre, they find headphones attached to their chairs. These are linked to a binaural microphone shaped like a human head which will be on-stage throughout the show. (This allows different sounds to be heard in the left and right ear, like footsteps walking away or sounds receding into the distance.) The setting by Anisha Fields is a north London sound recording studio with an engineer’s control booth behind glass with a huge mixing board. Sid (Campbell), an audiobook sound engineer, has hired unemployed American actor Lucas (Iverson, the name changes to be that of the actor playing the part) to record a ghost story as a last minute replacement all in one night. Lucas has trouble with trains and comes late necessitating the taping going much longer than originally planned.

In the spooky story being recorded, (“A Ghost in Your Ear” by A. C. Pritchitt), a young man has been informed by a lawyer that his late father from whom he has been estranged for the last 23 years has died and in his will he wants his north country mansion to be emptied by a professional company. However, the company originally contacted to do the job is unable to do it and the only local firm wants £5,000 more than the previous quote. As a result, the lawyer Mr. Morrison needs the young man’s permission as heir to spend the extra money. Instead, the young man says he will do it himself.

We next hear that he travels north and is picked up by the lawyer and driven to the house. Morrison warns him that a powerful snow storm is expected and he will most probably be snowbound for several days before plows will be able to get to him as he is so far from town. The young man does not see this as a problem as food supplies have been left for him along with two removal bins out front. He is given the keys and a letter of instructions, some of which are rather mysterious and suggest that the house has secrets.

At first, he finds everything to be normal but little by little things seem to be unusual: a cracked mirror, a bookcase, unexplained tapping in the walls, and where is that blue corridor mentioned in the instructions? Eventually, he is sure (as we are) that someone or something is in the house with him. We hear the sounds that Lucas hears in the house though Sid claims not to know anything about them. The door to the studio mysteriously opens. With each periodic scary moment, Lucas stops reading and Sid comes in from the control booth to see why he has stopped. Then the lights return to their previous dim level and Lucas continues where he left off.  We also see things that Lucas describes – is the actor seeing them or are we imagining them? Eventually this haunted house gives up its secrets and we learn of the twisted relationship between his father and his grandfather from so many years before. Ultimately, however, is the actor’s life in danger from the story?

Most effective are the sound effects by the Ringhams which take place in our headphones and become very real to us. Jacobs’ lighting which becomes dimmer and dimmer often going to black except for a tight spot light on Lucas adds to the horror and scariness of the story. The all grey setting by Fields which initially seems too bland becomes a house of horrors as we see objects we should not see.

Iverson, making his Off Broadway debut after his roles as James Oglivie on The Pitt and Simon on The Gilded Age, is excellent as the actor who reads beautifully but also registers all of the necessary emotions that the story requires. As the sound engineer who proves to know more that he is telling, Campbell (Translations, Hangmen on Broadway and at Atlantic Theater, and Indian Summer) is wry and amusing, denying things that we know we have heard and seen. They work well together as polar opposites.

A Ghost in Your Ear lives up to its name, eventually making the hairs on your neck stand up. Do not expect a great many thrills and chills but the horror of the tale eventually gets to you. Jamie Armitage’s production is strong on atmosphere and moodiness which will eventually make you look over your shoulder after the play is over.

A Ghost in the Ear (through December 12, 2026)

Audible

Minetta Lane Theatre, 18 Minetta Lane, between Sixth Avenue and Macdougal Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit https://www.ticketmaster.com/a-ghost-in-your-ear-new-york-11-14-2026/event/300064F5E20BA653

Running time: 90 minutes without an intermission