Inside No. 9: Stage/Fright – theatre spin-off is 'all-encompassing fun'

Reece Shearsmith in Inside No.9: Stage/Fright

(Image credit: Marc Brenner)

Over nine series and 55 episodes, "Inside No. 9" became a TV phenomenon, said Sarah Crompton on What's on Stage. Written by and starring Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, this darkly comic BBC TV anthology series was made up of 30-minute-long stand-alone vignettes that, with their combination of the eerie and the absurd, "sit somewhere between 'Hancock's Half Hour' and 'The Twilight Zone'". The series finally came to an end last year, making this spin-off the duo's "final hurrah". "Stage/Fright" is not as "groundbreaking" or radical as the TV show, but it is "great, all-encompassing fun" – and, owing to the TV original's legions of devoted fans, it is already sold out in the West End. However, a nationwide tour will surely follow at some point.

This is an "end-of-the-pier show meets Grand Guignol, a fond farewell meets Michael Frayn-ish metatheatre", said Dominic Maxwell in The Sunday Times. It "gives you the willies one moment and makes you giggle the next" – and is as packed "with ideas as anything on the London stage". Superbly acted by its two creators and a small supporting cast, and deftly directed by Simon Evans, the show features, in its first half, a reworking of one of the TV episodes, "Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room", about a comedy double act reuniting after 30 years; the second half, set partly in a Victorian asylum, is "even better". And the jokes, scares and illusions come thick and fast from the start: the "remember to switch off your phone" warning may be "the greatest, certainly the bloodiest, yet staged".

I was disappointed, said Clive Davis in The Times. Given the talent involved, the show is surprisingly uninventive; the dialogue is lacklustre; and much of it feels recycled. It may be best regarded as an "add-on collectible", rather than "a stand-alone pleasure", said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph, and perhaps the "spiralling tricksiness eclipses the emotional impact"; but it's a satisfying piece of theatre nonetheless: audacious, ingenious, clever and fun. "Bravo."