Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton standing on stage for Inside No. 9: Stage/Fright

With Inside No.9, it is always best to expect the unexpected, and this is precisely what the live version of the successful anthology delivered. A love letter to the characters from the show and to Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s love of horror and comedy, they bring the show back to where they started many years ago, with The League of Gentlemen, back on the stage.

The curtain opens to a brilliant anti-phone segment. Funny and horrific, this perfectly set up the tone for the next couple of hours. Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton welcomed the audience to the stage. They spoke of the theatre's ghostly past, adapting the tale to each venue, paying homage to classic horror directors such as William Castle, and taking advantage of London theatres well-known history of hauntings. The incident they speak of is a performance of The Terror in the Asylum, where the lead actress lost her life. A dimly illuminated ghost light was placed at the back of the stage, a sign that things were about to get eerie.

The first section of Stage/Fright was packed full of Easter Eggs for fans and references to Inside No.9 episodes, bringing the audience in with familiarity and excitement to see our favourite characters live. The two main characters that tied part one together were the dated double act ‘Cheese and Crackers’ from the episode Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room, reunited on the stage once again. There was a new sketch written starring the hapless burglars from the episode A Quiet Night In and, briefly, from Dead Line, involving a kidnapping of a celebrity. The genius part was that it was a different celebrity every night. Fans compared their guests, and in my case, went back for seconds. My two celebrities were Marc Wootton, from the very first episode, Sardines, and Rob Brydon. Both were entertaining and engaging, but very different experiences. The final show revealed that it had none other than Bernie Clifton himself, providing a very special moment for the audience.

The second half took on a darker tone, featuring an original sketch. The actors reenacted the prior story of The Terror in the Asylum, and the audience was on the edge of their seats. The show moved between comedy, drama, and quieter moments of horror. Steve Pemberton played the murderous doctor, while Reece Shearsmith played the untrustworthy director of the reinvisioned play. The lead actress and TikTok star, Hannah, played by the brilliant Miranda Hennessy, becomes the focus of ghostly goings on, and Gaby French, who plays the stagehand hoping for a part in the performance, is fantastic in this. Her comic timing is perfect, and she plays scared and deceitful well. The second half was the more horrific of the two, with more gore, more scares, and still with dark humour, especially during Reece’s Patter song and dance about alchemy, which was an unhinged delight. The show interweaves stage theatrics and cleverly uses a found-footage style of filming, played on the upstage screen, adding tension and hush across the audience.

The show couldn’t end in any other way, a twist, which Reece proclaims, “we ran out of ideas”, and, of course, a show tune. It wouldn’t be right if Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton didn’t have the opportunity to dance. Stage/Fright was brilliantly written and produced, and a treat for fans of the anthology. The theatre was in sync with gasps and laughs alike, and the variations in each show kept the conversation going long after leaving the venue. Any fan of Inside No.9 would have enjoyed this thrilling, funny and frightful stage show, and although Reece and Steve have performed their final performance of Stage/Fright, we can hope for an encore. It’ll be fascinating to see what Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton do next.