The latest Off-Broadway offering by Audible Theater adds another supernatural horror experience to the current New York theatre scene but with a clever twist and remarkable sound technology. “A Ghost in Your Ear” penned by Jamie Armitage certainly lives up to its title, requiring audience members to wear headphones to experience the binaural sound technology used throughout the performance. What you are listening to is an actor, Lucas (Lucas Iverson), recording an audio book in a sound studio. The actor and the engineer Sid (Owen Campbell), in the sound booth, are the only characters present. The actor is speaking into a microphone shaped like a human head, as if he were talking to someone. As he moves from side to side, the sound you hear switches from ear to ear in the headphones as if you were the person in the room. The microphone is ultra-sensitive, so you hear the actor breathing or swallowing. The audience also begins to hear things and voices they are not seeing, leaving them to wonder whether they are real or in the actor’s mind. It becomes disturbing and chilling.

The story begins with Lucas showing up a bit late and quickly discussing the approach, particulars and execution of the project with Sid. Sid returns to the sound booth, and Lucas begins the first-person narrative storytelling. A young man has discovered that his estranged father, whom he has not seen in 23 years has died. He receives a call from a lawyer trying to arrange for a company to remove the contents of his father’s house as requested. The young man quickly decides that he can do the job himself, travels to the house in the middle of nowhere, and becomes snowed in by a blizzard. When the young man begins to explore the house is when the tension begins. As in every haunted house, there are plenty of surprises. In this instance, the weird occurrences are also transferred to the recording studio, where paraphernalia start to move or fall for no reason. As the story unfolds, the shocking and surprising occurrences escalate, but will not be revealed, to avoid spoilers. The audience is faced with deciding whether these sounds and surprises are real or in the actor’s mind. The uncertainty will not last long before the end reveals that this was no ordinary recording session but some foul play that is dark and vicious.

Mr. Iverson is extremely captivating as he becomes consumed by the story and slowly unravels under the supernatural occurrences in the studio. He manages to deliver a performance that clearly delineates an actor, playing an insecure actor, who personally starts to unravel because of the twisted psychological events that are taking place around him. His performance is honest, clear and multifaceted. He is only upstaged by the binaural sound technology designed by Ben and Max Ringham. The visual is enhanced with a set designed by Anisha Fields, complemented by appropriate and effective lighting by Ben Jacobs that coaxes every ounce of tension needed for each scene. Mr. Armitage has delivered a conventional ghost story with an unconventional approach, combining sound and visuals to amplify the fright factor. His deft direction moves the proceedings along at a quick pace, using a pattern of repeated interruptions to further mislead and at times draw the audience further into the narrator’s psychological decline at the end. An interesting phenomenon is that when the headphones are placed on your ears, the sound is so sensitive and effective that it creates the feeling of being alone and isolated and not sharing your experience with any other audience member. You exist in a vacuum creating your own fears, almost one with the storyteller. It is worth an evening at the theatre if you enjoy a good horror story, an exceptional performance and mind-blowing audio technology.