Earshot

David E. Kemp, a former professor of drama at Queen’s University, is
the author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

Alienation and madness are the central themes of this clever, eccentric,
and very dark comedy. Doyle, cursed with hyper-acute hearing, is being
driven to distraction by the noisiness of the world around him. Not the
kind of sounds that occasionally trouble all of us, like lawn mowers,
leaf blowers or freight trains, but sounds that inform him of the most
intimate details of the lives of everyone living in his apartment
building: the movements of the paraplegic’s wheelchair in the upstairs
apartment, the soft whistling of the tenant who lives below, the scrape
of razor over facial stubble.

Noise pollution is not Doyle’s only problem. He has fallen in love
with the lonely young woman who lives next door. Certain that his
feelings would normally be unrequited, he hatches a scheme to catch her
attention and prove the depth of his passion.