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It’s clear from the outset of this one-man play that Robert understands and accepts why he is a long-term guest of the NHS, kept under lock and key in a psychiatric hospital. And yet that sense of certainty fails to bolster his faltering mental stability, besieged as it is by factors beyond his control – insomnia, boredom, cigarette addiction, a seemingly catatonic room-mate and the anything but catatonic nutter brandishing a fork in the corridor outside.

Chunks of the gripping, darkly humorous story of how Robert ended up in the ward fall abruptly into place, just as his narration helps him work out the jigsaw of his traumatic past and confused present. It’s hard to give away more but what transpires swiftly becomes a showcase of, as it says on the flier, one man’s “gallows bedside manner”.

Return to Work scores the hat-trick of great performance, script and direction. Thanks to James Ley’s loaded script and director Rosalind Sydney’s precise touch, Laurie Brown builds an impressively naturalistic portrayal of the complex Robert. He ensures that the humour and horror are utterly believable, whether he is analysing his demons or unclogging vomit from the sink, and reveals how madness can seep into the most normal corners of our lives.