Whenever I’ve reviewed BBC Two anthology series Inside No 9 I’ve struggled to write about each episode without giving away spoilers. The easiest option would just be to write “this is brilliant. Watch it.” Now that Inside No 9’s creators/stars Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have transferred to the theatre in Stage/Fright I feel like employing the same tactic. “This is brilliant. Go see it.”
In fact reviewers were sent an email specifically asking us not to reveal certain things that happen onstage. But I can say something. This spectacular show is both side-splitting and spine-chilling and draws on episodes fans will be familiar with and then adds some spicy original content on top.
After a ridiculously laugh-out-loud self-referential scene-setting overture about irritating audience members and an explanation that Wyndham’s is…haunted, we are thrown straight into a scene that No 9 aficionados will instantly recognise. The duo play Cheese and Crackers, a veteran double act reforming for one last fling who featured in the episode Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room.
The plot stays fairly loyal to the TV version before digressing into a kidnap scenario, bringing the duo back as the bungling burglars from silent episode A Quiet Night In. The kidnap-ee was a celebrity, who gamely played along, adding more than hint of Morecambe and Wise to the evening.
After the interval we are in original material territory, with what maybe started out as an idea for a TV episode, a noirish slasher send-up Terror In The Asylum. A patient is about to undergo a brain operation. Or is she? Shearsmith plays a manic medic, Pemberton plays a more sensible if linguistically playful one: “My migraine, your your Grain.”
It’s a clever segment that packs a lot in, from Hammer pastiche to skewering of modern theatre tropes. Every c**t in Shaftesbury Avenue uses video cameras, they bitch, though it doesn’t stop them using one too in a deft multi-media sequence. Oh, and there’s also an eyeball popping bit of grand guignol.
But now I’ve already said too much. The stars seem to be having a whale of a time. If there is a niggle it’s that eventually there are maybe one too many swipes at theatre and an overload of nostalgic cultural references that make Peter Kay seem retrained. The emphasis is probably more on laughs than scares. The moments that make you leap out of your seat are often just piercing howls or bangs when you least expect them. Ghost Stories, which shares some DNA with this, probably had more genuine nightmare-causing disturbing scenes.
I’d better stop now. They might know where I live. I do wonder what people who have never seen Inside No 9 would make of this. I certainly think there are enough flourishes to appeal to a wider audience. One that has a taste for the macabre anyway. I won’t say any more then. Except that if you don't enjoy Stage/Fright, contact a doctor immediately, you might be dead. This is brilliant. Go see it.
Until April 5. Probably not many tickets available but check here.
Pictured: Pemberton, Shearsmith and L-R Bhav Joshi, Steve Pemberton, Miranda Heennessy, Anna Francolini.
Pictures by Marc Brenner
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