This autumn, NeuNoir theatre presents, The Listener, an intimate reading of a chilling tale by one of the 20th century’s greatest supernatural storytellers, Algernon Blackwood. The show makes stop-offs in Worcester (Friday 30 Oct), Stourbridge (Saturday 31 Oct), Birmingham (Sunday 1 Nov) and Coventry (Thursday 17 Dec).

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.

Read by NeuNoir regular Richard Usher (Sweet Cherry Publishing’s Sherlock Holmes audiobook series – and no relation to Roderick), The Listener is the Midlands-based company’s sixth production, following WH Hodgson’s Carnacki: The Ghost Hunter (2021), EF Benson’s The Outcast (2022), MR James’ Casting The Runes (2023), Bram Stoker’s The Judge’s House (2024) and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall Of The House Of Usher (2025).

NeuNoir presents Algernon Blackwood’s The Listener visits Greyfriar’s House and Garden, Worcester on Friday 30 Oct 2026, Stourbridge Town Hall on Saturday 31 Oct 2026, Birmingham's Back To Backs on Sunday 1 Nov 2026, plus London Road Cemetery, Coventry on Thursday 17 Dec 2026.

For more information, visit the website.