Review: Inside No.9 – Stage/Fright, Wyndham’s Theatre

If it doesn’t quite scale the heights of its finest episodes, Inside No.9 – Stage/Fright is still highly entertaining at Wyndham’s Theatre

“Terrible things happen here, like Kenneth Branagh’s King Lear

As anyone who has seen the television show will expect, there are layers within layers within layers in Inside No.9 – Stage/Fright. So much so, that you should probably stop reading this or any review if you’re intending to catch it for yourself. It’s long been sold out but returns are always available for those able to stalk the website and its range of surprises are best experienced fresh, so consider yourself warned.

Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith rounded out their magisterial anthology series with a final ninth series last year and this stage show is clearly intended as a button on the whole affair. Without giving too much away, it blends a revisit of familiar material and characters in its first act Stage and aims to give us Fright with a new story (within a story, within a story etc etc) after the interval, a supporting cast including the likes of Anna Francolini, Miranda Hennessy and Bhav Joshi getting in on the action.

The opening scene is a corker and as sharp as anything we get all night, its humour directly aimed at the theatrical nature of the show. From there, Simon Evans’ production veers a little closer to fan service as favourite sketches are revisited, special guests appear from under sheets and meta-nods to any number of previous stories pop up here and there. Given the specific nature of the in-jokes tailored to this night’s guest star, an incredibly impressive amount of work must have gone to recreate something similar for each night’s new visitor.

As lectures suggest a ghostly history for the Wyndham’s Theatre itself, a sense of the larger picture at play comes into focus, the metatheatrics of the variety show-like approach here given context in a way that doesn’t always feel strictly necessary. Because whilst it is funny and spooky and will definitely make you jump, Stage/Fright doesn’t quite do any of them in a way that blows your mind like The 12 Days of Christine or The Riddle of the Sphinx – that’s the problem with setting the bar so high. It does however entertain hugely in and of itself to give a much welcomed coda to the show.

Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes (with interval)
Photo: Marc Brenner
Inside No.9 – Stage/Fright is booking at the Wyndham’s Theatre until 5th April, the run is sold out but returns are available

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