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? 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.

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”.

Born in 1869, in London, Blackwood skipped through a variety of careers (including journalism), before a friend presented some of his short stories to a publisher without his consent -a move that lead to the publication of The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories collection in 1906, and The Listener the following year. Although Blackwood went on to write everything from children’s books to a musical (with Elgar), it was his ‘strange stories’ – tales of the supernatural and weird, often filled with a quiet dread and informed by folklore, the mystical and Nature – which gripped the public’s imagination, earning him the well-earned nickname, ‘The Ghost Man’.

Among his most famous works are The Wendigo, The Willows and Ancient Sorceries (featuring occult detective John Silence). Such stories lay the foundations for modern horror, inspiring everyone from HP Lovecraft to Stephen King.

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