The Listener: A Ghost Story - 3:30pm show

This October NeuNoir theatre presents The Listener, an intimate reading of a chilling tale by one of the 20th century’s greatest supernatural storytellers, Algernon Blackwood.

Having spent a year hunting for affordable accommodation, a struggling writer chances on cheap rooms in a quiet central London cul-de-sac. Quickly signing a year-long lease without questioning why the cost is so low, they soon discover the real price is far higher than they expected …

Told using diary entries over a three-month period, the lodger describes how their initial elation at finally finding somewhere to live slowly turns to unease and eventually fear. Are they really alone in their cold isolated ramshackle dwelling? Richard Usher, an accomplished stage actor and voice-over artist, will read; attendees are in for a spine-chilling time in the suitably atmospheric book lined rooms.

Algernon Blackwood was one of the most influential and popular supernatural fiction writers of the 20th century. A writer, storyteller, playwright, paranormal investigator and broadcaster, his work featured in numerous early BBC radio and TV programmes, and unlike many of his peers he was no sceptic, claiming all his ghostly stories were "more or less autobiographical".

Drawing on the author’s own experiences of loneliness and poverty, The Listener taps into a myriad of contemporary themes, from isolation and wellbeing, to the wider challenges of homeworking and the housing crisis.