A newcomer to Brighton’s range of intimate spaces for intimate theatre, The Dukebox nestles at the back of the Iron Duke pub and is a good setting for Dan R Martin’s text-based two-hander.

Billed as a black comedy about manic depression, The Black Dog and Other Influences is a fast-paced exchange of ideas, scenarios and characters. A splintered conversation between therapist and patient, it teases the audience’s expectations as the actors swap roles, break through the fourth wall, discuss the making of the play, and somehow manage to give a pretty good overview of the life of a manic depressive.

Actor Roger Kennedy gives a great and understated performance; he has natural warmth and switches from comedy to attack convincingly. Less successful is Dan Martin, who could take his performance down several notches in volume and physicality.

Simply staged with two chairs, directorially there is just some getting up, walking about and sitting down. In bare feet. Further consideration of where the performers’ eyes should be focused needs a bit of attention; it would help delineate between the actor/character shift in this meta-theatrical language. Limitations of space require more creative thinking.

The strength is in the writing. The Black Dog and Other Influences interweaves the process of writing a play with that of undergoing therapy in a script that is sparky, full of good contemporary references and a fine sense of fun.