Inside No. 9: Stage/Fright Tour at the Milton Keynes Theatre
★★★★★
Early September saw the return of this frightful spectacle after its sold out run in the Wyndhams Theatre. This will be more of a summary of the small changes made to the production as my overall opinions on this show remain the same. If you are a fan of horror, thrilling live theatre or just the writing talents of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton my recommendation remains the same: go see this show. My further thoughts on the show can be found here: https://www.anxioustheatregoer.co.uk/reviews/inside-no9-stagefright-at-the-wyndhams-theatre
*POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD*
Content Warnings:
The show has content warnings clearly displayed around the foyer and throughout the theatre, which were as follows:
Violence
Bad Langauge
Firearm discharged
Liberal use of wordplay (highlighted as Chekhov's Pun)
The following section will contain trigger mentions but no spoilers as to when or how they happen. I’m writing this section to highlight the fact that I, as a long-time fan of this exact style of horror, still managed to be taken aback by some of the scenes that unfolded. Shearsmith and Pemberton are amazing at their special brand of shock horror but even as a long-time enjoyer, I want to ensure that other fans in my position who may be extra sensitive to any of the following topics are aware they are included, no matter how lightly or quickly they are moved on from.
Paedophilia within a church setting
Self-mutilation in the form of cutting off your own leg
Acid used as a weapon
Visual effect makeup showing a person's eye hanging out of their skull
Murder in the following methods:
Anaphylactic shock
Electric shock
Caving in of a Skull
Shooting
Decapitation
Drilling into a skull
Broken neck
Crushed to death by a light fixture
Racial Stereotypes portrayed through accents (with immediate acknowledgement)
Extensive swearing
Implied sexual assault
Descriptions of and implied sexual coercion
Implied rape
Death from Alcoholism
Homelessness
Kidnapping
Descriptions of infidelity
Audio Jumpscares
Instant Blackouts
Tricks of the light to create the appearance of ghostly presences
Some of these trigger warnings are within the show's opening, highlighted by Steve Pemberton himself. But these do occur after 6 of the warnings above have already happened.
My Review:
The first of many small changes that I noticed came in the opening warning to the audience. A line which originally references a modernised production of The Taming of the Shrew has been changed to another good swipe at Jamie Lloyds recent work by mentioning instead a production of The Tempest in space.
During its run at the Wyndhams, the production made use of the layout of the theatres boxes for multiple areas of the show involving musical interludes and jumpscares. These parts seem to have been moved to the edges of the stage but it doesn’t take away any immersion from the segments.
The famed seat F9 on this night was instead replaced with D9, as far as I'm aware, notification that this seat will involve audience interaction is still passed to the audience member who purchased the seat.
As the audience is first addressed, the show mentioned after the line ‘A place where terrible things happen’ will now reference pantomimes at the theatre in question but this may change depending on the theatre. Either way it is a lovely localised easter egg.
An update to the casting for this tour is Sarah Moyle replacing the roles originated by Anna Francolini. She takes over this role with grace and poise and brings her comedy chops into the role of Madame Cragg and Others beautifully. I already found myself dying of laughter during the opening scene where she appears to be equally disturbed by Angus’ phone call as Reece Shearsmith's character, unaware she is also a massive disturbance to other audience members.
During this evening I also had the pleasure of seeing the debut of Sophie Suddaby as Abby. She gave an absolutely stunning performance. To end the show, it was beautiful to see an extra bit of acknowledgement for this cast, giving her an additional solo bow, for her knockout debut.
All in all, my thoughts about this show remain utterly the same, it's a stunning and immersive horror experience with screams of laughter throughout and moving into autumn, there is nothing more perfect to see come to a local theatre near you.
Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope this review has proved interesting and helpful for you :)
- AnxiousTheatregoer