The idea of a sketch show centred around the theme of food was, admittedly, not one in which I had much confidence prior to seeing this show. Surely, truly original premises and jokes are rare enough in the world of sketch comedy without the need for writers to restrict themselves to a single subject. To be perfectly honest, I had resigned myself to either a long hour of “Waiter! There’s a [blank] in my wife’s [blank]!” or a series of run-of-the-mill routines culminating in – God forbid – a poignant socio-political message about the inadequacies of the food supply chain. How very, very wrong I was.

The show consists of around eighteen sketches, plus an introduction and farewell from Gregory Miller, the lead writer. Miller is fantastic in this role, employing a sinister persona as he allows each tearful cast member a (strictly rationed) round of applause at the end of the show before they are sent offstage to a factory where – we are assured – they will be boiled down for glue.

“The premise and style of each sketch was totally unique”

Many of the skits themselves seem to follow the same formula: a familiar situation becomes increasingly surreal and twisted, with an incredible proportion ending in the murder/cannibalisation of one, if not all of the characters. Despite this, and in spite of my fears concerning the writers’ decision to stick to a single theme, the premise and style of each sketch is totally unique. Who would have thought that the simple prompt of ‘food’ would inspire sketches ranging from the experience of a man working for the complaints department of ‘Nefarious Protein Shake’ (which occasionally causes the drinker to grow six slimy tentacles), to the plight of two assassins who get distracted by their victim’s wonderful lasagne?

The sketches seem to get weirder and grosser as the show progresses, which is saying something, as the very first routine of the night features two billionaires glugging dolphin blood at an exclusive restaurant and ends with one character being suffocated by the waiter, who slyly informs the other diner that there may be some “dessert” after all.

“My main complaint about this show is that it only played for a single night”

The writing is generally very good indeed, and there are some truly cracking one-liners. My only criticism would be that a few of the sketches lack structure and a punchline. Instead of telling a joke, they tend to present the audience with a bizarre and amusing idea which is then not developed further.

A particularly nice touch is the way in which, towards the end of the show, characters from previous sketches begin to crop up again, such as Igor, the fork-wielding psychopath, and Timmy, a little boy who is kidnapped for refusing to eat his greens at dinner.

The real triumph of this show is the outstanding performances given by each of the five members of the cast. Even sketches where the dialogue is somewhat lacking were made utterly hilarious by the timing, physicality and confidence of the performers. Slip-ups and giggles were impressively few and far between, and to be honest the moments where things did go a little bit wrong merely added to the highly enjoyable atmosphere of rising delirium.

In truth, my main complaint about this show is that it only played for a single night, and that I therefore cannot tell you and everyone I know to take an evening off from work, get down to the ADC and spend some time laughing and enjoying the madness. In fact I’d quite like to go back myself, if only to make sure that I didn’t hallucinate the sketch in which Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart dress up as huge flowers in an attempt to solve world hunger.

I’m not entirely sure that I would want to meet the twisted geniuses who came up with some of the concepts behind these sketches, but I certainly can’t wait to see what they do next.