Inside No. 9 Stage Fright: Theatre Review

Inside No. 9 Stage Fright is the stage version of the popular TV show, Inside No. 9. It’s an interesting show – clever in some ways, but confusing and unfocussed. Here’s my Inside No. 9 Stage Fright theatre review.

Overview of Inside No. 9 Stage Fright

Inside No. 9 Stage Fright is stage version of the popular BBC TV show called Inside No. 9. The stage show is written by the same people who wrote the TV show, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. The two writers appear in the stage show like they do in the TV show. It’s an interesting show…in both good and bad ways. My Inside No. 9 Stage Fright theatre review is definitely very mixed. The show is clever and memorable, but confusing.

Do I need to watch the TV show to watch Inside No. 9 Stage Fright?

You don’t need to have seen the TV show of Inside No. 9 to be able to see the stage version. Much of the stage version is a separate story, so you don’t need any insider knowledge. In the same way that the TV show is an anthology show that doesn’t have recurring characters, the stage show is its own story and production. It might help you understand Inside No. 9 Stage Fright if you have some awareness of the TV show and the style of writing and humour. But in general, you don’t need to have seen much or any of the TV show to be able to watch Inside No. 9 Stage Fright.

The plot of Inside No. 9 Stage Fright

At the end of the play, the actors do ask the audience not to publish spoilers on social media. But it’s very difficult to write a review of Inside No. 9 Stage Fright without giving away some spoilers. My Inside No. 9 Stage Fright theatre review will talk about the plot and the twist ending. So if you want the show to be a surprise, be warned!

But if you want to know more about the show before going to see it, or if you’ve already seen the show and want to read more about it, then read on. I found the show quite confusing, so I’m going to do my best to explain what I think happened. So if you’re recently seen Inside No. 9 Stage Fright and you’re feeling equally confused, then hopefully my Inside No. 9 Stage Fright theatre review will help you understand the show a bit more. Let me know in the comments what you thought of this show!

Plot synopsis of Inside No. 9 Stage Fright

Act 1

The audience at a theatre performance

Inside No. 9 Stage Fright starts with a theatre audience at performance of Hamlet. Audience members become annoying, with loud talking, eating, mobile phones going off etc. One audience member becomes increasingly annoyed with the disruptive antics of the others. And one by one, he kills the other three audience members.

I think this was a fairly short, stand-alone comedic sketch – I don’t think this scene had much relation to the rest of the show. There was just one part that maybe linked to a later theme – I’ll mention that later.

The writers address the audience

The show then cuts to the two main actors and writers, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. The two are stood in front of the curtain, addressing the audience. They explain a ghost story about the theatre. Apparently, over a hundred years ago, an actress was accidentally killed on the theatre stage in a performance of Macbeth. The theatre ghost story is that the ghost of this actress now haunts the theatre, and a lamp need to always stay lit to appease the ghost.

This ghost story and story about the lamp is important – it’s a theme that comes up again several times during the show.

Cheese and Crackers scene

The show then jumps to another scene. The next scene is about ‘Cheese and Crackers’. If you’re familiar with the TV series Inside No. 9, then this scene will be well-known to you. This scene is an exact replica of one of the TV episodes.

It’s set in an old house/warehouse. And it’s a comedy sketch scene about two older men reminiscing about the good old days, when they used to be comedians in the 1980s called ‘Cheese and Crackers’ performing on stage. The duo re-create a few of their old comedy sketches. One of them is enthusiastic about bringing back the good old days. But the other feels like the magic has gone.

The kidnapping scene

Inside No. 9 Stage Fright then jumps to another scene, the kidnapping scene. I think the kidnapping scene was linked to the ‘Cheese and Crackers’ scene before. The idea was, I think, that the kidnapping scene was one of Cheese and Crackers’s comedy sketches.

In the kidnapping scene, two men have kidnapped someone. Their characters reminded my of Horace and Jasper in 101 Dalmatians. They’re a bit incompetent and amusing, and they’re on the phone to the person who has ordered them to do the kidnapping.

There’s a big reveal of the man who has been kidnapped. And it turns out to be a guest celebrity Dara O’Brien. The rest of the scene is a bit confusing. In some ways, it felt a bit improvised. It felt like Dara O’Brien was maybe improvising the scene. But other bits felt rehearsed. I wasn’t sure if it was meant to appear improvised or not. After some (possibly improvised) dialogue, the incompetent kidnappers accidentally shoot and kill their subject.

Back to Cheese and Crackers

The show then jumps, yet again, to another scene. But this time we’re back to the Cheese and Crackers story. They continue what they were doing before, with their rehearsal for their comeback show. But then we learn that their double-act fell apart because one of them became an alcoholic.

Then there’s a twist. Cheese’s daughter arrives for the funeral. We discover that Cheese was actually dead the whole time. The whole scene was Crackers imagining that his friend was there with him, but actually he’s about to go to the funeral.

The link back to the ghost story

At the end of Act 1, there’s a slight link back to the ghost story that was introduced at the beginning of the show. When we discover that the whole Cheese and Crackers scene was imaginary and that Cheese was actually dead the whole time, a lamp flickers. It links back to the ghost story, where the lamp appeases the ghosts of people who died in the theatre. And Act 1 ends with a jump-scare where we briefly see the ghost of the actress who died in the theatre while playing Macbeth.

Act 2

Act 2 is all the same story. It doesn’t jump between different scenes and sketches like the first half of the show does. Act 2 is set in a doctor’s surgery. All of the characters are different to the ones from the first half. The scene that lasts the whole duration of Act 2 doesn’t have any relation to Act 1 of the show, apart from the theme of the ghost story.

The crazy doctor

In the doctor’s surgery scene, a woman goes in for treatment for headaches and issues with sleep-walking. But then we find out that the doctor is crazy. The crazy doctor uses hypnotising to make another patient cut off his own leg.

The crazy doctor then notices that the woman is wearing the ring that used to belong to his wife. We find out that the crazy doctor killed his wife, so he suspects that the woman knows that. Just as the crazy doctor is about to operate on the woman, someone yells ‘cut’ – and we see that it was all just a rehearsal for a play.

Backstage at the play

The director gives notes to the cast, and we see the cast members as themselves. We learn that the woman playing the main character isn’t a serious actress and instead is a pop star. And the female usher working on the play wants to replace her in the play.

The ghost in the theatre

They go back to rehearsing their play. They use live-action camera in their show, to give close up views of the actors’ faces that the audience can see on a big screen. The female usher holds the camera to film the pop star. But the female usher notices something spooky in the background of the camera shot. The pop star goes backstage with the live camera to investigate. So we see footage of her backstage on a big screen on stage. After several minutes of suspense, we see the ghost of the theatre – and a severed head drops onto the stage. The pop star woman is scared off by the ghost.

But then there’s another twist. The female usher comes back onto the stage, and it’s revealed that she was pretending to be the ghost of the theatre to scare off the pop star woman. The director of the play didn’t like the pop star’s acting so wanted her to quit, so he asked the usher to pretend to be the ghost to scare her off. The usher expects that she’ll now get the main role in the director’s play. But the director says he doesn’t plan to hire the usher to act in the play. The usher then breaks the directors neck. She picks up the camera and turns it to view herself, and we see a scary face with a jump scare.

It seems like the show now ends, with the characters coming onto the stage for their bows.

Another twist

But then there’s another twist. After some bows and clapping, the actors on stage address the audience again. And it is revealed that one of the actors in the doctor’s surgery play, who we all thought was Reece Shearsmith, wasn’t actually Reece. It was actually an actor called Toby, who was playing Reece Shearsmith’s characters. So throughout the whole show (including Act 1), we’ve been watching Toby instead of Reece. Because Reece had actually died.

Note: it actually was the actor called Reece Shearsmith who was in the show the whole time. There was something about Toby replacing Reece in the Hamlet scene at the beginning, and so the audience was meant to believe that for the whole show, we thought we’d been watching Reece but actually it had been Toby because Reece was dead.

The actual ending

The actors show a dedication to Reece, who had died. The curtain closes, and we see a silhouette of a lamp falling on Steve Pemberton’s head. So Steve is now also dead.

Reece enters, and Steve and Reece establish that they are both now dead, and are both now ghosts. They sing a song, which was in the original Cheese and Crackers story in the TV show.

Inside No. 9 Stage Fright ends with the reveal that Reece and Steve are now angels who live on Cloud 9.

What I liked about Inside No. 9 Stage Fright

I found Inside No. 9 Stage Fright really good, but also a little bit confusing. I’ll say more about that later. But there were still elements that I enjoyed.

The first scene of disruptive theatre audience members

The first scene, where the theatre audience member kills the others when they are being disruptive, was very amusing. It worked well in a theatre. I’m sure most theatre-goers will have experienced annoying and disruptive audience members at some performances, so it was amusing to see this portrayed on stage with one person’s extreme reaction to the disturbance…

The Act 2 story and ghostly suspense

I preferred the Act 2 to the first half. I liked that Act 2 followed the same story for the whole time, and kept adding to the twists. There were a lot of twists in this section, from the first twist where we find out that the scene is actually a play, to the twist about the theatre ghost actually being the usher, and then the twist that one of the actors was actually dead. These twists were all good and (mostly) made sense. When watching the second half, you quickly learned not to take anything you were seeing at face value, and keep looking for clues about what the next twist could be.

I liked the use of the live camera in the second half of the show as well. I thought the scene where the pop star takes the live camera backstage was really good. There was lots of suspense and a tense atmosphere, as we were waiting to see something ghostly but didn’t know when that moment would come. It was a good portrayal of a ghost story, and worked well on stage. I like ghostly theatre shows, where you’re sat on the edge of your seat and things make you jump, and this section of Inside No. 9 Stage Fright did it well.

The humour and comedy

Some of the humour in the show was good, and there were a lot of moments when the audience was laughing. I found some of Cheese and Crackers’ old sketches funny, and there were funny moments in the kidnapping scene and also the doctor’s surgery scene. If you enjoyed the style of humour in the TV show, then the stage show follows a similar type of humour. I appreciated the humour and comedy in Inside No. 9 Stage Fright.

The unexpected twists

I also liked some, or even most, of the unexpected twists. I’ll say more later about some of these twists and how well they worked – as sometimes they didn’t. But in general, I liked seeing a show that had lots of unexpected twists. I like the feeling of being constantly a bit on edge, and not being sure if what you’re watching is really happening or if it’s actually something else. A lot of the writing and the twists were very clever.

What I wasn’t so sure about

I went into the theatre show of Inside No. 9 Stage Fright not really knowing what to expect. And while I enjoyed a lot of aspects of the show, there were a few bits I found a bit confusing. And for me, that took away from some of the enjoyment of seeing the show.

The plot – it’s a bit confusing, but still good

I’ve never written a theatre review where I’ve written over 2000 words just to explain the basic plot. On the train home after being in the theatre, I was making notes about what I’d seen so I could remember it. I really enjoy shows that are a bit unexpected, and shows that make you think. But for me, there were just a few confusing elements that meant I felt like I focussed a bit too much on trying to understanding links rather than just enjoying the show.

Too many different scenes and unclear links

The main aspect of this show that I found confusing was trying to figure out whether the various scenes/stories were linked. Obviously the TV show is an anthology show, so the stories are never linked, but in the stage show they try to link the stories. But trying to follow through these links wasn’t as clear as I would have liked. In the stage show, all of the stories are all linked – but we only realise that right at the very end of the show, with the final twist.

At first, I thought that the Hamlet scene was completely a stand-alone scene. And then the Cheese and Crackers/Kidnapping scene were another stand-alone story. And then the doctor’s surgery was another stand-alone story. There was a ghost theme throughout some of these stories, with the ghost story about the theatre ghost, but this theme didn’t feature in all of the stories.

It wasn’t until the very end, when it’s revealed that Reece has actually been dead the whole time, that we realise that this is the link between all of the scenes throughout Inside No. 9 Stage Fright. This idea that Reece has been dead the whole time even links back to the Hamlet scene, when Toby is originally sat in the theatre and is replaced by Reece.

I would have preferred the ghost theme to have been a bit stronger throughout all the different scenes, to make it a bit clearer if there was meant to be a link or not. It was still an enjoyable show, but it took a while to figure out the links and connections between stories.

The celebrity guest and possible improvised scenes

The kidnapping scene featuring Dara O’Brien was funny, but I couldn’t work out whether this part of the show was improvised or not. It was implied that they had a different celebrity there every night of the show for this scene, or at least every week of the show. It felt like a big reveal that tonight’s special guest was Dara O’Brien. If you’ve been to see Inside No. 9 Stage Fright, then let me know who was the celebrity in the kidnapping scene. Write in the comments section who the celebrity guest was, so then we can work out if they have a different celebrity every week or not.

Would I recommend Inside No. 9 Stage Fright

My Inside No. 9 Stage Fright theatre review is a bit mixed, but overall I would recommend going to see the show. There are some clever twists, some good ghost themes, and a lot of humour. It’s an enjoyable show. However, I found some of the links between the stories confusing, and for me this took away from the enjoyment of the show.

I’ve never spent this long writing a theatre review, and I’ve never written a theatre review this long. So maybe that’s a sign that the complexity of the show is a good thing. It’s definitely got me thinking about this show long after I’ve seen it.

You definitely should go to see this show with friends so you can spend time afterwards talking about it and puzzling out the twists and the themes in the show. It’s an enjoyable show with a lot of clever writing and clever twists.

Hope you enjoyed my Inside No. 9 theatre review! Check out my other theatre reviews for more shows in the West End, across the UK and the world.