Tag: Hampstead Theatre Downstairs

A Ghost In Your Ear by Jamie Armitage, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 6 December 2025

Horror is not normally a genre that would draw me and Janie into the theatre. But this piece sounded fascinating when it was announced many months ago and we trust Hampstead Downstairs to look after us…even though the tickets came through saying “main stage” rather than “downstairs” (see headline image).

We also trusted that Jamie Armitage would look after us, following a similarly genre-busting experience with his play, An Interrogation, earlier this year – in that instance the genre was police procedurals – a genre we would normally avoid even more emphatically than horror.

An Interrogation by Jamie Armitage, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 25 January 2025

We were right to trust our hosts and our playwright. A Ghost In Your Ear, which we saw on the first preview performance, was an entertaining and interesting evening in the theatre. It held our attention and teased our senses throughout its 90+ minutes. If anything, we felt a little over-stimulated, especially aurally so, having earlier seen another performance:

Most Of My Politics I Got From Songs by Rohan Candappa, Hornsey Town Hall Arts Centre, 6 December 2025

What both performances had in common was the use of sound in fascinating ways to trigger the desired dramatic effect. Also, both pieces explored ideas around the notion that the past can haunt the present, be that through nostalgia, elements of our past that were hidden from us…or that we hide from ourselves…or ghosts.

A Ghost In Your Ear uses a technique called binaural sound, which is “beyond stereo”, requiring the wearing of headphones in order to get a more genuine three-dimensional effect from the sound. Ben and Max Ringham are, apparently, THE go to sound engineers for this sort of sound engineering – this production has gone to the go to people. Jamie Armitage explains it in a short vid:

Janie and I certainly both got the sensation that the sound was all around us, which added a fair bit to the horror experience. At one point during our preview, the binaural quality of the sound dropped away for two or three minutes. I don’t think deliberately. For sure the sensation was diminished and then reinstated, when the binaural sound was fully restored. Our contemporaries who are now a little hard of hearing might get less out of the binaural sound effects.

But the reasons for seeing this piece go way beyond the clever sound (and indeed some superb visual) effects. In particular, we were much taken with George Blagden’s acting. He was not only on stage but absolutely central to the action throughout. He must speak 95% of the lines, which he did quite brilliantly – a top notch performance, we both felt.

It is also a very thought-provoking piece, beyond what I had expected from a ghost story play. Without spoiling the effect by disclosing the twists, it dawned on me, as the play unfolded, that people are far more readily haunted by things that have happened to them and things that they have been told, than they are haunted by ghosts. This play, using the “story within a story” technique that has been used since the dawn of story-telling time, deliberately messes with the ghost story genre in that way. Are the characters haunted by a ghost, or are they haunted by a ghost story, or are they simply haunted by their own, natural fears?

Jamie Armitage not only writes but also directs his own pieces. I have oft said that I don’t really approve of playwrights directing their own pieces – it often leads to self-indulgence and missed opportunities. But in Jamie Armitage’s case, based now on two experiences, I am prepared to make an exception. His heavily genre-based pieces work because he is writing his plays while fully-imagining how that genre might work on the stage. Armitage therefore needs to be heavily involved in the production, not just the writing of the play.

A Ghost In Your Ear was really worth seeing. Don’t take our word for it – this link should find formal reviews for the production – once those reviews come out – I think weekend 12-14 December.

Well done Hampstead Theatre Downstairs – another top notch production. This one runs until 31 January 2026. Highly recommended by me and Janie if you get to book it in time.

Fatherland by Nancy Farino, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 1 November 2025

Janie and I saw a preview of this play/production. I am writing it up a few days later, ahead of seeing any reviews.

We had been looking forward to this play/production, as usually we do for the excellent small-scale stuff the Hampstead puts on downstairs. And we weren’t disappointed – a well-crafted script and highly professional production, performed by a trio of convincing actors.

We nearly didn’t go. We were exhausted by early evening, having returned to the house that morning to discover that we had been burgled. We’d only just said goodbye to the police and were still anticipating a visit from the forensics people the next day.

We steeled ourselves to the notion that a good piece of theatre would take our minds off our own domestic travails and the notion that “cancelling a treat” is not a good way to try and make yourselves feel better.

By the end of the evening, we were glad we pressed ahead.

We sat next to a nice lady whose face I recognised…it turned out from our previous visit to the Hampstead Downstairs. In chatting we realised that we had all attended the same evening of “The Billionaire Inside Your Head” a few week’s earlier.

The Billionaire Inside Your Head by Will Lord, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 20 September 2025

We worked out that we’d all been there the same day when discussing the scary “voice in the head” character. The nice audience lady was relieved to learn that I was still alive after “verbally dicing with death” with that character.

Returning to Fatherland, you can read all about the production on the Hampstead website here.

To some extent we didn’t get quite what we expected. We thought the comedy element of the play would prevail, based on the description, but actually it is a bittersweet story, full of sadness expressed and supressed, together with an utterly reckless character, the father, who leaves chaos in his wake without recognising that he is a major…indeed at times the sole…cause of that disarray.

Nancy Farino, who both wrote the play and acted as the daughter, Joy, is a new name to us but certainly a name we’ll look out for in the future in both the writing and acting contexts. She was ably supported on stage by Shona Babayemi, as the understated lawyer, and Jason Thorpe as the hapless and hopeless dad.

This production might be remembered the most in theatrical circles for one highly ambitious, coup de theatre action scene, towards the end of the play, which would sound implausible in a tiny studio theatre if I were to try and describe it. But the team somehow pulls it off and the scene works.

However, I think I’ll remember the production more for Joy’s monologues and the depiction of her nightmares/sleep deprivation imaginings in her inner transcendental winter of depression.

It rather helped me and Janie in the recovery of our composure. We are fortunate not to suffer from depression. We’d just had a bad experience which we’ll deal with and move on from.

When the Fatherland reviews do come out, you’ll be able to find them through this link/search term. Whatever the pundits say, Janie and I would recommend this one for sure.

The Billionaire Inside Your Head by Will Lord, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 20 September 2025

This was a really interesting and enjoyable evening at the theatre. We saw the second preview, so you might be reading this ahead of formal press night.

Janie and I highly recommend this play/production.

We are big fans of the Hampstead Downstairs, which rarely disappoints us.

There seems to be something about Anna Ledwich’s work as a director (which we have seen several times), when she works with Allison McKenzie, that attracts quirky people to sit next to us:

Wilderness by Kellie Smith, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 23 March 2019

Differently quirky people this time – no drink spillage but very interesting chat before the show…unfortunately they were a pair who like to chat to each other during a show as well, but never mind.

Meanwhile Allison McKenzie as Voice/Nicole opened the piece by talking at us, the audience…and then did so again a few times during the play. Be prepared to be challenged in more ways than one!

The play is about OCDs and the voices/compulsive thoughts that some people have in their heads constantly. The character Nicole is the personification of that voice to Richie, Nathan Clarke’s character. He and Ashley Margolis, as Nicole’s son and the OCD-challenged young man’s hapless yet caring friend, riffed off each other extremely well. All three performers were excellent.

As is so often the case at the Hampstead Downstairs, the design team somehow manages to get a lot of theatre out of a small space through ingenuity and some pretty impressive choreographed movements by the performers.

Enough of me prattling on. If you haven’t booked it yet, Janie and I suggest that you book it before it sold out. Read all about it here.

And if you are one of the people who was lucky enough to be in the audience on Saturday and you work out who I am, you might, if superstitious, be relieved to know that I am writing this on the Monday after, so I didn’t die the day after we saw the show. No fictional voice in the head bullies me!

See the show. We’re not kidding!

Pinky’s First Theatre Trip: Personal Values by Chloë Lawrence-Taylor, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 17 May 2025

Whose “bright” idea was it to book a play about family funerals, eulogies and stuff for the day after Pauline’s funeral?

OK, so it was my idea. But I had the idea to book this back in early March, not even three weeks after I came out of hospital with Pinky. Janie and I love the Hampstead Downstairs – I spotted that this play was only an hour long and that the production had Rosie Cavaliero playing the lead.

Back in the day, Rosie stormed NewsRevue with her performances, not least a cracking, seminal job with one of mine, Domestic Fuel, which became a NewsRevue classic…

Domestic Fuel, NewsRevue Lyric, 12 May 1993

…so I was keen to see her perform again after all these years. I booked the very last night of the run to give my hip sufficient time to repair ahead of a “cheek-to-cheek” hour on those Hampstead Downstairs pews.

While my mother-in-law Pauline’s demise this spring was not entirely a surprise, I could not have known in early March that she would die some six week’s later and that the funeral would be the day before we saw the play.

The timing could have been worse. Given the central conceits of the play revolving around funerals, eulogies and things going badly wrong for a family before during and after…I guess seeing this play the day BEFORE delivering Pauline’s eulogy might have terrified me. Whereas, seeing the play the day after simply reinforced my view that I had needed to write with care and deliver the eulogy with dignity:

My Eulogy To Pauline Wormleighton (1 July 1929 to 16 April 2025), Delivered 16 May 2025

Anyway, returning to Personal Values.

Here is a link to the Hampstead resources for this play/production.

All three members of the cast – Rosie Cavaliero was joined by Holly Atkins and Archie Christoph-Allen – performed admirably, directed well by Lucy Morrison. The set made excellent use of the limited space downstairs, creating a sense of the claustrophobic atmosphere in a home that has become a hoarding nightmare – we have Naomi Dawson to thank for that.

It is an excellent short play. The notion of someone getting emotionally stuck in their past reminded me a little of Kevin Elyot’s excellent plays My Night With Reg and The Day I Stood Still:

The Day I Stood Still by Kevin Elyot, Cottesloe Theatre, 24 January 1998

Except in Personal Values, the “stood still” syndrome manifests itself in an extreme hoarding disorder and the “syndrome” is family-originated rather than through romance and otherness.

We were left in no doubt as to the growing up era upon which the sisters were reflecting. Rosie’s one chance in the play to show off her ability to deliver a belter of a song was a pivotal scene, excellently done, when the sisters started singing and dancing to Temptation by Heaven 17:

It was preceded by some business, which amused me a lot, around a Casio keyboard which the Rosie character had put up for sale on E-Bay at the behest of her sister and then bought back from herself, because she couldn’t bear to part with it. When she demonstrated the instrument it had the Nightbirds (Shakatak) riff programmed into it:

So very early 1980s, both of those tracks. Mercifully, although I am prone to mentally and digitally hoarding this stuff, I am not tempted to rush out and secure those tracks on vinyl…or am I?

The reviews for Personal Values have mostly been terrific, deservedly so. Headline ones are shown on the Hampstead resource – here’s the link again.

If you want to do a deep dive into the reviews themselves, the search term linked here will initiate that dive for you.

Once again, the Hampstead Downstairs has done the business. Janie and I really like that place. And it’s great to be back at the theatre, even if, for the time being, limiting ourselves to short plays for Pinky’s sake.

An Interrogation by Jamie Armitage, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 25 January 2025

Janie and I love the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs. Have I made that point on Ogblog before? [About 40 times – ed].

Here is yet another example of excellent theatre work down there.

In truth, police procedurals don’t tend to float our boats. They tend to be somewhat formulaic and usually more than a little predictable. Perhaps the term “procedurals” is a bit of a giveaway in that regard.

This piece worked well and kept us rapt with attention, through the quality of the writing, directing and acting.

Elements of the conceit of the play required a little too much suspension of belief for me. The play opens with the statement that the average missing person/abductee is killed 72 hours after the abduction, which is supposed to keep us in suspense as the clock ticks down to the 72 hour mark while the central interrogation takes place. But of course such averages are meaningless averages, as almost all cases result in murder very quickly or the death of hostages after an extended period of time. Almost none would reach resolution at the 72 hour mark.

Yet in suspense and rapt with attention we still were, on the back of the quality of the writing, directing and acting. Have I mentioned that aspect before? [Yes, but keep going. ed].

Here is a link to the Hampstead Theatre rubric on this play/production. It is running until 22 February 2025 and only has limited seating availability left, on the back of excellent reviews.

Jamie Ballard, Colm Gormley and Rosie Sheehy all act their parts extremely well. The twists and turns in the story seem credible and natural in their hands. Jamie Armitage wrote and directed this piece. I usually think that writers directing their own work is a bit of a mistake, as a good director can often dredge depths in a piece that the writer cannot find. But in this instance I think the combined role works well. The use of cameras/video, for example, is clearly an integral part of both the writing and the way the story is depicted on stage.

Don’t take our word for it. This link provides links to reviews of both the Hampstead production and the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe first showing of this piece.

Janie and I love the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs. [Surely you’ve got more important things to do than repeat yourself on Ogblog – ed].

Out Of Season by Neil D’Souza, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 2 March 2024

We really enjoyed this play.

It is a simple story about a trio of 50-something fellas who were a band when they were college age, returning to the scene of their exploits in Ibiza 30 years later.

Neil D’Souza not only wrote the play but also plays one of the lead parts, very convincingly – actually all of the actors do so: Catrin Aaron, Kerry Bennett, Peter Bramhill and James Hillier being the other four. Alice Hamilton does a grand job from the director’s chair.

Here is a link to the Hampstead resources page for this production.

The play is a comedy but it has a thoughtful and edgy twist to it too. In particular, the second half starts off full of fun and laughs, but soon “bloke meets woke” in a rather shocking way, changing the tone and bringing the story home in a nuanced way.

We really like comedies that have enough going on that we still have stuff to talk about over a meal or two afterwards. This is one of those.

Here is a link that should find plenty of reviews, which seem to have been very good almost universally.

If you only read one review, I’d suggest Anya Ryan’s from the Guardian which pretty much sums up how Janie and I felt about this piece.

Running until 23 March 2024, if you catch this write-up early enough there’s still time.

Unknown Rivers by Chinonyerem Odimba, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 9 November 2019

We have a split jury on this one. I really liked the piece and found it interesting; Janie found it a bit ordinary and dull.

Not much pace, I’d agree, but it tackles topics such as mental illness, ethnic identity and urban social issues rather well in my view.

Here is a link to the Hampstead information about this play/production.

Below is a video about the play/production:

The acting was excellent; Renee Bailey, Doreene Blackstock, Nneka Okoye and Aasiya Shah all top notch – Janie and I both agreed on that. We also both thought the play well directed by Danial Bailey and we both liked Amelia Jane Hankin’s minimal yet imaginative set.

Not sold out even on a Saturday night, which seemed a shame – the play runs until 7 December – a few weeks yet to run at the time of writing, so click on the image above or click here for ticket information.

Wilderness by Kellie Smith, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 23 March 2019

We saw the third preview of this excellent play/production at the Hampstead Downstairs.

A link to Hampstead’s information on this piece can be found through this link or the picture below:

Wilderness is about a couple who split up, determined to make it amicable for the sake of their eight-year-old son. But of course it doesn’t work out like that.

Janie and I found this play a painfully visceral piece. Neither Janie nor I have direct experience of this scenario, but that didn’t lessen the power of the drama for us.

Anna Ledwich, who has directed so many of the excellent things we’ve seen at the Hampstead, has again done brilliant work with a new writer, Kellie Smith and a superb cast: Richard Frame, Natalie Klamar, Allison Mckenzie, Finlay Robertson.

An excellent, sparse set by Lucy Sierra added to the sense of cold and decay that pervaded the piece.

One element of the writing that I think deserves praise was how very irritating the main characters were, yet Kellie Smith managed to maintain a sense of goodness and vulnerability, such that we as audience members cared about them and cared what happened to them. One of the ways she did that was to prevent us from ever seeing the child at the centre of the tussle; of course we couldn’t but care deeply for the ever-absent child and the impact the play’s events must have been having on him.

One other event will stick long in our memories. Next to us sat two slightly unusual women; one young, one quite a bit older. They clearly weren’t together but struck up a chatting friendship. At the end of the interval, the younger woman came back with some wine and cake. She plonked the wine down in front of her (we were in the front row) and commenced with munching the cake, taking and expressing great joy in her victuals.

Janie and I both, silently, thought that wine cup was an accident waiting to happen, positioned, as it was, in the path of any late-comer who might be moving swiftly to their seat at the end of the interval. Within a minute, indeed such a latecomer arrived and indeed the cup and the wine were put asunder. To make matters worse, in her dismay and forward lunge in a vain attempt to rescue her wine, the young woman also dropped the remains of her cake.

“Oh no”, said the young woman, “that was entirely my own fault”.

In some ways, that silly incident felt like a comedic metaphor for the serious subject matter of the play. Meanwhile, I have been trying to work out if I can find yet sillier places to leave victuals and crockery lying around the house in order to maximise the chance that they get spilt and/or broken. Thought experiment only, you understand.

But back to this truly excellent play/production, Wilderness. It really is well worth seeing if you like your drama intense, up close and personal.

Plenty of seats still available at the time of writing; Janie and I would suggest that you book early to avoid disappointment. The production runs to 27 April 2019 and I hope it gets a deserved transfer after that.

If or when Wilderness gets formal reviews, this link should find them.

Eden by Hannah Patterson, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 16 February 2019

It’s been a wee while since we visited the Hampstead for no particular reason other than the productions not quite suiting us and perhaps less going on downstairs – our favourite part of the Hampstead.

Anyway, this one was downstairs and sounded interesting. A Trump-like American businessman who covets some unspoilt UK coastline for a golf complex using an employee with local connections to try and do his bidding.

Here is the Hampstead information on this play/production. Below is the explanatory vid and below that the programme, would you believe:

Need I say more?

Well, I’m going to say more anyway. We really enjoyed the play and this production of it. The way they designed some of the big visuals (golf course, construction site, neighbouring house…) into manageably small symbols on the stage was innovative, clever and entertaining.

The acting was all excellent, not least Yolanda Kettle as the conflicted young woman and Michael “Fatty Batter” Simkins as the Trump-like anti-hero of the piece.

I met Michael Simkins, many years ago, at Lord’s as it happens, where I passed an very pleasant afternoon chatting with him and Michael Billington. I’ll Ogblog that event in the fullness of time.

Meanwhile, Janie reckoned that Michael Simkins recognised me as the cast took their curtain call. I think she’s probably right, but almost certainly it would have been, “I know that bloke from somewhere…maybe cricket?”, rather than, “that’s the fellow I chatted with in August 2004 when I went to see Middlesex v Sussex at Lord’s with Michael Billington.”

Meanwhile, back to Eden.

Reviews and stuff (not many, it seems) through this link.

In truth, Janie and I both enjoyed the first half more than the (shorter) second half. The plot seemed to resolve to neatly and easily for our taste. But as is almost always the case at the Hampstead Downstairs, the piece was interesting, well-produced and entertaining.

If I had needed any reassurance that cricket and tennis are my games and that golf isn’t (I didn’t, but still), this play would have provided it.

The Strange Death Of John Doe by Fiona Doyle, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, Followed By Dinner At Fora With Dot And Randy, 23 June 2018

Janie and I were fascinated by the descriptive rubric about this play, so booked to see it as soon as the tickets went on sale, as oft we do for the Hampstead Downstairs.

Here (and through the embedded picture below) is a link to that rubric and other Hampstead resources about this play and production. 

Even the programme for this one is downloadable for free – I haven’t seen the Hampstead do that before – a new initiative perhaps?

A few weeks before our booking, I got a message from Dot to say that “they” would be in England the weekend of 23/24 June and wondered if I could recommend a show for them to see and/or it would be nice to meet up. In the event, there were still tickets for this play available and Dot seemed keen to join us.

“They” turned out to be Dot (who came to Z/Yen from the USA as a summer intern a few years ago, recruited by me while I was experimenting with recreational on-line poker using my first ever smart phone – that is certainly an Ogblog story for another day)…

…plus her beau Randy. Randy came to England on this occasion primarily for work purposes, whereas Dot was in transit, on her way to watch some football World Cup live in Russia.

Anyway, it made a change for me and Janie to go to the theatre with some other people – it is years since we last did that. Dot and Randy made excellent company too, bringing a different perspective to the themes raised in the play and indeed  interesting perspectives on the current geopolitical maelstrom  on both sides of the Atlantic pond.

Before the show, we had a chance encounter with Ollie Goodwin, who was also at the Hampstead but he was watching the upstairs show…so it proved to be a brief encounter. Still, always good to see Ollie.

The play itself indeed proved to be very interesting and superbly acted/directed. All of the performers were very good indeed. Janie and I again noticed Callie Cooke as exceptional – we still remember Firebird (another Hampstead Downstairs triumph which Ed Hall himself directed) and Callie Cooke’s performance in it as one of the best:

Firebird by Phil Davies, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 2 October 2015

In those days (2015) the Downstairs studio eschewed official reviews, but the Hampstead’s policy has changed, so you will find official and unofficial reviews through this link – click here. The official reviews are good but not rave reviews, whereas some of the unofficial noise is unequivocally complimentary. My take on it is that the play has its flaws, not least the rapidity of the scene changes and the amount of walking on/walking off that goes on in short scenes, but that the flaws do not detract from the drama, tension and fine acting within the piece. This production is well worth seeing.

It’s not ideally suited for the very squeamish – it is mostly set in a post mortem lab – but I was able to cope with it which means that most people should be OK – the grizzly bits were mostly done with sound rather than visuals. I glanced at one grizzly point to see if our entourage looked OK and assessed that Randy might be as squeamish as me, whereas Janie and Dot were lapping it up. Indeed the two girls looked as though they might, had they lived in late 18th century Paris, have sat in the front row of the guillotine execution sessions, knitting.

After the show, Janie, Dot, Randy and I went to Fora in St John’s Wood for a very tasty Turkish meal and a chance to chat about the issues some more. Randy generously picked up the tab at Fora – he can visit again 😉 – so Janie insisted on dropping the young couple back at the Hotel Intercontinental, bringing a most enjoyable evening to an end. Yes, come to think of it, both of them most certainly can visit again.