Inside No 9 Stage/Fright has enough old school laughs and chills to satiate even the diehard fans
For 10 years, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton bewitched and bewildered audiences with their BBC anthology series Inside No 9 – a black comedy masterclass in genre-clashing with twists to make M Night Shyamalan’s head spin. When the series came to an end after nine (what else?) seasons, fans grieved the loss of one of TV’s most inventive endeavours. Six months later, the dynamic duo are back – this time, and for the first time, on stage.
For an indication of just how loved their show was, consider the fact that tickets for Inside No 9 Stage/Fright sold out before opening night even hit the West End. Those fans will not be disappointed, with this production – including a prologue that serves as the most violent and persuasive theatre etiquette PSA I’ve ever seen – recalling some of the series’ best elements, notably the wonderful interplay between old pals Shearsmith and Pemberton who slip back into their roles as crank and goofball as comfortably as a well-worn cardigan.
Expect everything you love from the shows here: accents, slapstick, wigs, false teeth. It’s old-school laughs that still do the trick. As one of the younger members of the crowd, I suspect a good few references went over my head. One skit in particular sees a roll call of 1970s celebrity names – word salad to me but comic gold to others judging from the raucous reception.
Fans will recognise other elements, too, including one season four storyline (“Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room”) that casts Shearsmith and Pemberton as a sad sack double-act reuniting for one last hurrah. The emotional impact, at times even Kleenex-worthy in the TV show, is duller here, but Shearsmith and Pemberton have oodles of fun with the meta-theatrical layers that this new medium affords them.
The two-hour play, directed by Simon Evans, pokes fun more than once at West End celebrity casting (sorry, Cheryl Cole), while another scene, a sketch within a sketch, involves the participation of a surprise celebrity (Alexander Armstrong on the night I attend) taken hostage by Pemberton and Shearsmith’s bumbling burglars and forced to improv their way out of a tricky situation.
The duo have made a career out of playing with form – from episodes told in reverse to episodes with no dialogue to episodes with dialogue performed only in iambic pentameter. It makes complete sense that they would turn their hand to theatre, where their storytelling might find a more intimate setting, which brings us to the second integral part of Inside No 9: the frights!
As central to the show’s success as the laughs were its scares – the best episodes of Inside No 9 managed to build a sense of dread on par with a Hitchcock film, all the while feeding you joke after joke. The overarching conceit here, delivered in an opening spiel by Pemberton and Shearsmith, is that Wyndham’s Theatre is the site of supernatural hauntings carried out by one “Bloody Belle”.
The story goes that an actor once died in a freak accident during a performance of a show called Terror in the Asylum; the second half of the play is set within the rehearsals for a new production of that same play. Dun dun dun! Like Jeremy Dyson’s hit stage show Ghost Stories, it is more schlocky than it is scary – the biggest frights are the result of jumpscares and a deafening sound system. But it is all such great fun; even Shearsmith’s patter song about chemistry falls just on the right side of corny.
And now to the twists, at which Inside No 9 is second to none. Instead of one big reveal, the production here is dappled with several handbrake turns. Sadly, unlike the TV show, almost all are guessable, though not entirely to their detriment. The rug pulls, albeit predictable in their nature, are still erratic in their direction, pulling you fitfully towards some unknown ending out of sight – and out of mind because if nothing else, this is one play you won’t be checking your watch in. Tonight, on stage, the spirit of Inside No 9 is alive and kicking. No pun intended.
