Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright is a black comedy horror play by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, based on the BBC black comedyanthology 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[1]. 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
Pemberton and Shearsmith have both previously stated that there will be no recorded release of Stage/Fright and no script release has been announced at the time of writing.
In one interview with Ryan Tubridy for the Ryan Tubridy Show on Virgin Radio UK, Shearsmith stated that it should "remain in the ether and when it goes, and it goes like the best theatre, it's gone".[2]
The following is an account pieced together from first-hand accounts from audience members that saw the 2025-2026 run of the show, both in the Westend and on tour around the UK. Some fans joined a collaborative project on Reddit to preserve the story by recreating the script from memory[3]
Act One
As the show begins, the curtains open to show three rows of raked seating set up on the stage facing the audience as if the audience were on stage, and the theatre audience can hear the audio of a production of Hamlet.
Shearsmith's character is seated in the middle to the right, watching the Hamlet.
Pemberton's character comes on to the stage and sits on the top row, behind Shearsmith to the left. He is portraying a loud businessman who is seeing the show after a recommendation from a colleague. Throughout the segment, he is consistently texting, making loud phone calls, using his laptop and taking part in zoom meetings.
There is a comical text exchange between Pemberton and his colleague that's shown on the backdrop. Pemberton is speaking loudly into his phone and autocorrect mixes things up by sending the different messages. "Hope that's ok" becomes "Ho that's so gay".
Shearsmith shows his irritation and asks him to be quiet. He leaves to get something and comes back shortly after.
A woman and her father walk in shortly after and sit in the front row to the left. The woman is loud and behaves egregiously, and her father is elderly, coughs frequently, is hard of hearing and uses a walking stick.
Shearsmith eats a snack and the woman enquires whether they were nuts , because her father is highly allergic and she doesn't want him to “have a prophylactic [sic] shock”.
After a loud conversation with her father, she leaves to go to the toilet and tells him to eat his sushi if he's hungry.
The old man continues to be loud and disruptive by coughing and rustling his belongings, so Shearsmith sprinkles some nuts on the old man's sushi.
The old man then goes into a violent Anaphylactic shock due to peanuts and begins to foam at the mouth. The woman comes back in, finds her father dead and begins to scream. Shearsmith hits her around the head and kills her.
Pemberton's character protests, so Shearsmith pours his drink over Pemberton's laptop charger and electrocutes him.
With everyone else dead, Shearsmith turns to the audience and says "Ladies and gentlemen, may I please remind you that you are in a theatre. No coughing, no eating and no mobile phones."
Introduction - Reece and Steve
Two violinists play the extended theme to Inside Number 9 and the lighting on the curtains shows the iconic 9 from the show's opening sequence.
Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton come out to welcome the audience and Pemberton mentions that the producers want the show to go on "no matter what".
Shearsmith tells a story about the theatre being haunted by ghosts, which Pemberton calls "bollocks". This is repeated for every theatre the play was shown in, with the name of the theatre replaced.
The cold open was allegedly based on a true story of an incident that occurred years ago where an audience member, Mr Dowling, whilst in a state of grief from the loss of his wife, murdered three people and then "ran up to the upper circle and tried to toss himself off". They said it was forbidden by theatre management and a spotlight shone on a staff member with a large sign that said 'No masturbating'.
Mr Dowling's lawyers had claimed that a red mist had descended on him and he was taken over by a strange presence.
Pemberton says that "grief can do funny things to the brain and make you see things that aren't there."
They go on to talk about how there was a play that was put on many years ago in the manner of the Grand Guignol called 'La Terreur de L'asile' or 'Terror in The Asylum'. During the play, the lead actress, Madame Belle Catron, was killed during a scene that went wrong and her ghost has cursed the theatre.
Pemberton and Shearsmith step aside to allow the curtains to open slightly to show a single caged light on a pole stood in the centre.
The tradition of the ghost light is introduced and the curtains part to show a single flickering light on a stand. Pemberton tells the audience that Mr Dowling could have seen the ghost of Bloody Belle or the ghost of his late wife because "“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.”
Shearsmith leaves the stage to change for the next scene and Pemberton gives trigger warnings. Whilst doing so he says that if you say the name 'Bloody Belle' three times then you will summon her to the performance, and that Mr Dowling was sat in seat "D9". At this point a spotlight shines on whoever was sat in that seat.
Pemberton tells the audience that he hopes they don't scare easily before leaving.
The ghost light is left on stage flickering.
The lights go out without warning and a piercing scream sounds out.
Shearsmith reprises his role as Tommy and Pemberton reprises his role as Len as they run through old sketches they did when they were the fictional double act Cheese and Crackers.
Tommy finds a letter from Len whilst going through his things. It's about a script he had written for a comeback sketch.
It's read aloud and the script is projected onto the same background they used for the cold open autocorrect sequence.
The set is changed to show the interior of a house and Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff), the song from A Quiet Night In, plays. Pemberton and Shearsmith reprise their roles as thieves Eddie and Ray respectively.
There is some classic slapstick as they break into the house and it is revealed that they are working for a mysterious boss are plotting to kidnap 'Lady Lockwood's live-in lover' as part of a hostage scheme.
They bring in a guest star wearing a paisley dressing gown and pyjamas with a pillow case over their head.
Eddie mimes the name of the guest and Ray has to guess who it is. The guest changes for every performance.
After the guest is revealed, they find that they have the wrong person and that they are at the wrong address.
They receive a call from their boss and Lady Lockwood, and the guest star has to perform a series of semi-improvised tasks, such as playing the trumpet, to convince her that they have kidnapped her lover so she will pay the ransome.
Act III - Return to Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room
We return to continue the Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room recreation
Tommy speaks to Len as if he were there and puts a ghost light in the centre of the stage for him as part of the tradition.
Reece leaves and the light flickers as an old hamper starts to shake to the left of the stage begins to shake. The lid of the hamper opens and nothing happens.
The theatre lights go out suddenly and there is a brief pause before the ghost light relights to show the ghost of Bloody Belle screaming at the audience.
Act Two
Intermission
The audience are told over the tannoy to return to their seats before Part 2.
The timing the audience was given is slightly off. The theatre lights go out without warning again and a loud noise plays which causes the audience to scream.
Act IV - Terror in the Asylum
A large LED TV screen is now on the stage and the opening sequence to Terror in The Asylum plays in black and white.
A woman visits a doctor in an asylum to find treatment for her migraines.
The doctor, Reece, is revealed to be an insane patient that has escaped, and the real doctor, Steve, comes in and claims to have a pain-free hypnotic method for operating on patients.
Chaos ensues.
Whilst the chaos is happening, a staff member from the theatre walks onto the stage with a coffee order. She is dressed in the uniform of the theatre staff where the Stage/Fright play is taking place and it appears to be a genuine mistake until it's made clear that she is part of the play and that we were actually watching a rehearsal. Another play within a play.
Act V - Bloody Belle and The TikTok Star
Reece is revealed to be the Director and co-star of the production and he has had to hire the female lead based on her TikTok follower count but is plotting to scare her away from the production with the legend of The Curse of Bloody Belle, the ghost who was introduced to the audience at the start of the play.
The cameras and LED display screen play a big part in this act.
Curtain Call
The cast come to take a bow. Steve reveals that Reece passed away shortly before the play and that Toby had been filling in for him in his place.
Epilogue
Final Curtain Call
Pemberton and Shearsmith come onto the stage dressed in white suits and sing Cry Tears of Laughter together
Production history
West End (2025)
The play opened at the Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End on 16 January 2025 and ran until 5 April, starring Pemberton and Shearsmith. It was directed by Simon Evans featuring set design by Grace Smart, costume design by Yves Barre, lighting design by Neil Austin, sound design by Ed Lewis, illusions by John Bulleid and video and projection design by Duncan Mclean.[4][5][6]
Following the UK tour, the show played a run for the final time at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London from 2 to 6 January 2026.[8] The final celebrity guest star was Bernie Clifton (who the episode Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room performed in the show is named after).
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