For nine glorious series on the BBC, Inside No 9 gifted us the pleasure of not knowing quite what was going on or where we were headed. Right up until the last tear-inducing episode, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith kept us guessing. So it comes as no surprise to find the same plot-twisting, genre-shifting style alive and well in the show’s live debut. Stage/Fright feels like several shows in one, and if that occasionally leads to fragmentation, it’s a small price to pay for two hours of clever, funny, insightful and unexpectedly moving theatre. 

Along with their fellow League Of Gentlemen stars, Pemberton and Shearsmith cut their teeth on stage, so although we’re now used to seeing them on the small screen, they look very much at home beneath a proscenium arch. In fact, their love for live performance, and the audience etiquette it demands but often doesn’t receive, leads to a hilarious opening scene (a not so subtle reminder that phones, chatter and noisy food wrappers have no place here). How to shape the Inside No 9 live offering must have caused Pemberton and Shearsmith no end of sleepless nights; in some ways, they were in a ‘damned if we do, damned if we don’t’ situation. Present a brand-new show and hardcore followers would decry the lack of favourite moments from the series, but rehash old material and they’d be accused of rinsing the fans’ good nature.

And so we have a combination of both, with the first half devoted to classic episode ‘Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room’ and bits and pieces from ‘A Quiet Night In’, ‘Kid/Nap’ and ‘Sardines’ woven together (and probably others, providing no end of fun for those who enjoy a game of ‘spot the reference’).

The second half plays into the notion that old theatres are haunted by performers past, particularly if they met a grizzly end. Having earlier told us about a supposed real-life ghost, act two finds the duo and a supporting cast rehearsing the very play which led to that actor’s demise. Playing an embittered director, Shearsmith delivers a plethora of on-the-nose barbs about modern day theatre, while Pemberton fits the part of a slightly deranged surgeon like a glove. Past and present, real and supernatural fuse as we try to decipher what’s really happening, evoking shades of Inside No 9’s 2018 Halloween special, ‘Dead Line’. 

As expected, it’s all highly entertaining, filled with sharp humour, strong characterisation and the requisite twists and turns. But perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that, by the end, Pemberton and Shearsmith haven’t just brought tears of laughter to our eyes. A poignant farewell, acknowledging that we, the fans, are as important to them as they are to us, might just have you reaching for a tissue. 

Inside No 9: Stage/Fright tours the UK until December 2025; reviewed at Wyndham’s Theatre, London.