As the ninth and final series of their BBC hit Inside No 9 begins this month, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have announced a new stage version of the show for the West End next year.
The pair will star in Inside No 9 Stage/Fright which will feature familiar characters and fresh surprises or, in their words, “something old, something new, something butchered and something … boo!”. They added: “We want to deliver the perfect West End night at the theatre … we might even crack out a song if you’re lucky.”
The duo, who met at Bretton Hall performing arts college near Wakefield and later performed with The League of Gentlemen on stage and screen, said they had been asked about creating a live show of Inside No 9 since the series started in 2014. “Each episode is like a mini-play. There are small casts and single locations, and we were definitely inspired by our work in theatre when writing the stories for TV.”
The script, which is still being written, will combine the TV show’s blend of humour and horror. “We want to use the different things a theatre show can offer in terms of comedy – a collective audience behaves very differently to a solitary one, the laughter builds and the shared enjoyment is infectious. So there’ll definitely be some big comic moments, but also something a bit spooky and more dramatic.”
Inside No 9 Stage/Fright will be at the Wyndham’s theatre from 18 January to 5 April. Tickets go on sale on 8 May. The pair have created theatre company IN9 with an eye to further stage productions in the future. Shearsmith told the Radio Times this week that he and Pemberton felt sadness but “massive relief” to be ending the TV series. “We’ve done 55 different stories now, and to have not repeated ourselves or started to wane feels like an achievement. We’re very proud.”
