Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright review - "a comedy of terrors"

You might have thought that Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith had exhausted their interest in the macabre after three series of The League of Gentlemen. Then, with fellow gentleman Mark Gatiss busy with other things, they surprised everyone with Inside No.9 - which, fittingly, ran for nine series.

And they're not done yet.

Now comes Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright, which transfers their penchant for the perverse and fascination with the frightful to a theatrical setting.

Add in their not inconsiderable skills as comedians and nostalgic fondness for the likes of Bernie Clifton, Penny Keith and Tudor Crisps and you've got a horror comedy that will make you laugh until you scream.

Was it deliberate that opening night was on 29 January at 19:00? I assume so but if it was a coincidence then it was a spookily apt one, as was the fact we were sat in the ninth row.

As for the show itself, there's so much I can't tell you about it because Shearsmith and Pemberton have asked people not to give spoilers. Quite right too, since there are so many twists and turns in the second half at least that to be forewarned would dispel the laughs and the frights.

There's a brilliant prologue in which a theatregoer enacts bloody revenge against patrons flaunting the worst kinds of bad behaviour that we've all come to know and loathe these days.

Then we get a redo of the TV episode about the reunion of double act Cheese and Crackers, woven into which is a riff on the cat burglar episode featuring a different celebrity (a very game Alexander Armstrong on opening night) at each performance.

The sense of deja vu is dispelled in act two, a play-within-a-play about a not terribly talented bunch of thespians putting on a schlocky Grand Guignol frightener that's both a parody of the genre and a homage to it.

This is where supporting players like Miranda Hennessey and Anna Francolini really get to shine, and our hosts Steve and Reece take great delight in having everyone at the Wyndham's Theatre on the edge of their rickety seats.

When they're not on stage you can imagine them backstage cackling with glee. There's something delicious about being scared out of your wits in a theatre.

It's happened to me a few times, like at The Woman In Black, Ghost Stories and 2:22 A Ghost Story. And it happened again during Stage/Fright, a comedy of terrors that's funny and frightening in equal measure.