Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright
Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright is a black comedy horror play by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, based on the BBC black comedy anthology series Inside No. 9. The play has a run time of 2 hours 20 minutes including a 20 minute interval, and features references to the TV series, including a performance of the episode "Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room" as well as new characters and storyline.
The play opened at the Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End from 18 January 2025 for a limited run until 5 April, directed by Simon Evans. Tickets for the 85 shows were released on 8 May 2024. Each performance featured a celebrity guest star, which included Lee Mack, Ian McKellen, David Tennant and Bob Mortimer. The show also toured the UK during autumn 2025, before returning to London for a final run at the Hammersmith Apollo in January 2026.
Synopsis
Act One
The show begins with an audience on stage watching a performance of Hamlet. As Charles begins to watch the performance, the members around him, Angus, Antonia and Daddy become too distracting causing Charles to kill each of them before turning to the audience reminding them "Ladies and gentlemen, may I please remind you that you are in a theatre. No coughing, no eating and no mobile phones."Shearsmith and Pemberton step in front of the red curtain to introduce the show and explain that the theatre is haunted and that the introduction is based on an incident that happened a number of years ago where Mr Dowling was in such a state of grieving for his wife that he killed three audience members. They explain about a Grand Guignol play called La Terreur de L'aisle or "Terror at the Asylum" was performed however its lead actress Madame Belle Catron was killed during a scene that went wrong and her ghost has since haunted the theatre called Bloody Belle. Suggesting that Mr Dowling might have seen Bloody Belle's ghost or the ghost of his late wife, they ask “For what is a ghost but a memory? A way of keeping a loved one’s memory alive? Maybe every ghost story is really just a love story.” They also explain the tradition of the ghost light before Pemberton sceptically encourages the audience to summon Bloody Belle by saying her name three times.
In the next scene, the episode Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room is performed. Thomas "Tommy" Shelby arrives on an empty stage with props and a ghost light to meet his former "Cheese N Crackers" double act partner Len Drake to attempt practice their old routines. Shelby who has moved on from showbusiness has moved on while Drake is enthusiastic about starting again. Tommy reminds Len that he owes him £25 for "Bernie Clifton's dressing room" in which Len doesn't recall what he means.
As Len goes out for a cigarette, Tommy reads a script that he has written about two burglars Eddie and Ray who have mistakenly broken into the wrong house and taken a celebrity hostage. The celebrity is tasked with an improvisational script before Shearsmith accidentally shoots them dead, before they take a bow in front of red curtain and handed flowers.
As the scene goes back to the episode, Tommy discovers that Len has been homeless by finding his belongings who insists that he never wanted any money, just to have Tommy by his side performing again. In rehearsing their final routine "Brown Bottles" which involves Len drinking 7 bottles of beer within the song. Tommy reminds Len that one night when performing Len collapsed in Bernie Clifton's dressing room choking on his own vomit and reveals that he stopped performing because of fear that Len would kill himself due to his alcohol addiction. Len's daughter Leanne walks to find Tommy who in fact has been on his own the whole time as it is revealed that Len died and he is preparing for his funeral speech. She gives him a card with £25 from Len.
As the first half ends, the ghost light starts flickering. After Tommy leaves the stage, Bloody Belle appears.
Act Two
The second act begins with a performance of La Terreur de L'aisle. Suzette arrives at Dr. Goudron's asylum to treat for her migraines and is greeted by Cragg, one of the nurses. Hugo, one of the insane patients arrives who is believed to be the Goudron, however Goudron enters and offers a pain-free hypnotic method for operation.As violence and cahos ensures, Abby, a theatre usher and aspiring actress, enters with a coffee order ruining what is in fact a rehearsal for the play. Rehearsals continue using a camera and a screen on stage as Abby discusses the curse of Bloody Belle with the director Marcus, Vincent Gannymeade and the play's celebrity leading actress Sherrie Leeks.
After the rehearsal and theatre has been emptied and the ghost light has been left on, Sherrie and Abby stay behind to rehearse the play's lines. They begin to see movements on the camera and screen, which Sherrie uses the light on the camera to guide herself around the empty theatre to investigate the noises. Having lost Abby, she makes her way back onto the stage where she is frightened away by seemingly the ghost of Bloody Belle, which turns out to be Abby pretending in a ruse by her and Marcus to make Sherrie quit the play and attract publicity. As Marcus rejects the idea of Abby taking over from Sherrie, Abbie becomes possessed and strangles him as the real Bloody Belle appears.
In what is seemingly the curtain call for Stage/Fright, the cast take their bow before Pemberton steps forward to thank the audience for their support explaining that Shearsmith had in fact died before the show's run began, revealing Toby his understudy had played Shearsmith's roles in the performance, ending with applause and an obituary photo of Shearsmith on the screen.
As the curtain falls, the audience can still hear Pemberton on his microphone get killed by a falling stage light. The curtain rises to see him being greeted by Shearsmith's ghost much to his annoyance that Pemberton still continued to go ahead with the show and that the "twist" was that he was dead. The show ends with the Shearsmith, Pemberton and the company performing "Tears of Laughter" all dressed in white on Cloud 9.