Some responses

You can read a fascinating piece by Lyn Gardner on theatre sound here; a profile in Arifa Akbar’s “Spotlight On…” series is here.

Max Pappenheim’s compositions and sound design powerfully heighten the sense of unease, ranging from individual trills played with wasp-like menace to discordant arrangements of the national anthem.
Rachel Halliburton, The Arts Desk, on Henry V

Azusa Ono’s sepulchral lighting adds to the sense of claustrophobia. As does the eerie period music by Max Pappenheim, the strings creating drone effects that evoke the buzzing of flies hovering above corpses.
Clive Davis, The Times, on Henry V

The works dramatise the act of listening, and Max Pappenheim’s sound design is central to the overall effect, heightening sound and silence so that each is vivid.
Arifa Akbar, The Guardian, on Beckett Triple Bill

There is a powerhouse trio of designers at work, too… Rae Smith's set is a perfect symbol of Shannon's psyche – crumbling, claustrophobic, and prone to violent outbursts, as when a thunderstorm drenches the stage. Neil Austin's lighting and Max Pappenheim's jungle sounds plunge the set into an oppressive tropical heat.
Lucinda Everett, WhatsOnStage, on The Night of the Iguana

Thanks to Max Pappenheim’s terrific sound design, we hear the crunch of gravel outside her bedroom, the hoot of an owl, and all the whisperings and comings and goings of the Elsinore court going on outside Ophelia’s door, as the world inside her room becomes smaller and smaller.

Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, on Ophelias Zimmer

Audibert’s staging is rich in detail and atmosphere, from the Duchess’s girlish maids who flutter fans as they giggle... to Max Pappenheim’s eloquent sound design, which veers from the haunting cry of crows to the vaguely threatening strains of ecclesiastical song.

Claire Allfree, The Telegraph, on The Cardinal

First among unlovable equals here is Caroline (Caroline Langrishe), the host of a popular cooking show filmed from her home. (James Perkins designed the enviably cozy set, which is destined to be thoroughly trashed; Chris Withers did the evermore nightmarish lighting, with sound effects to match by Max Pappenheim.)
Ben Brantley, New York Times, on Caroline’s Kitchen

Equally, Max Pappenheim’s sound design and composition create in the background soft rumbles that slowly build. It’s like being trapped under water. Against the low hum, wood pigeons and school bells introduce suburban normalcy only to be drowned out with a growing roar… you’re left with the sense that something here is terribly, fantastically, wrong.

Rosemary Waugh, The Stage, on Blue/Heart

Grace Smart’s pink, orange and pistachio set and Max Pappenheim’s sound design of crickets, barking dogs and wailing babies persuasively conjure up the sweltering downtown neighbourhood where Christopher Colquhoun’s taut, rangy Malcolm X has rented a modest single room.
Sam Marlowe, The Times, on One Night In Miami…

The transition to the more ambiguous, tragic terrain of the ending is beautifully managed. Max Pappenheim’s excellent sound design is key to this. The familiar noises of a working harbour gradually morph into a menacing score of eerie horns and bells.
Stephen Longstaffe, The Stage, on Creditors

The real horror here is what easy prey we are to fakery and the way that narratives so easily take root and dominate even when they tell a partial truth or no truth at all. It’s a point neatly made in numerous ways, including in how we see the sound of the jungle being produced Foley style from a pretend sound booth (sound designer: Max Pappenheim) and how we receive that same sound.
Lyn Gardner, StageDoor, on The Ridiculous Darkness

The author directs in a pitch-perfect, minimalist and traverse-staged production. Two actors, two chairs and an evocative sound design by Max Pappenheim.

Paul Taylor, The Independent, on My Eyes Went Dark

This claustrophobic mood is enhanced by Max Pappenheim’s striking sound design that mixes jaunty traditional music and eerie tones to create a creeping sense of dread.
Sally Hales, The Stage, on Cuzco

Das ist in Littlers Inszenierung nicht nur dem eigens für das Stück konzipierten und sehr stimmigen Sound-Design von Max Pappenheim.

Frankfurter Allgemeine, on Strangers on a Train

Max Pappenheim’s memorable sound design ensures that the unseen, temperamental oven is a substantial character in its own right.

Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard, on Toast

Max Pappenheim provides a subtle soundtrack that switches location in a trice.

Sarah Hemming, Financial Times, on Somersaults


Max Pappenheim and Stephen Higgins, who arranged Janácek’s score, have done well to highlight its earthy grain through subtle electronic manipulation.
Hannah Nepil, Financial Times, on Silent Opera’s Vixen

…featuring a rich soundscape by Max Pappenheim.  It was an immersive treat, to be sure… All under the direction of Caitlin McLeod, this team of designers have taken the spare and small stage of The Yard and within it take us from Lisa’s house to the train station, the train itself, airport, plane.  All along the way we are surrounded by Pappenheim’s soundscape, inescapable due to the wireless headphones each of us wear… it is a panoply of music, sound effects, aural nudges.  And Lisa’s voice, sometimes her live voice, as she addresses either the audience (a common feint) or her unseen characters, or send us her (normally unspoken) thoughts.  It is this last use which most sets this apart from your typical single handed production, as Lisa serves as her own Greek chorus at times.
I’ll come right out and say it; the design team, as a whole, deserve whatever award can be given for this sort of work.  The whole of it is so brilliantly executed that it easily overcomes the limitations intrinsic in so small and under equipped a space as Yard.  For being a one hander, this feels more like a fine ensemble production, the tech is so intimately woven into the work Kweh makes on stage.
www.fortunespawn.com, on A Kettle of Fish

Ping, ping, ping; oh how I longed to punch the maker of that sound!
Miriam Gillinson, SketchesOnTheatre, on Ophelias Zimmer