It’s a beguilingly silly concept: ‘man is possessed by a haunted sock puppet. Chaos ensues.’ The elegance of the blurb hints at the neat writing to follow. In a tiny room in the Pleasance basement we are confronted with a lamp, a stool and an innocent looking red sock. From these humble beginnings John Luke Roberts masterfully spins a measured and hilarious tale of the unrequited and ultimately homicidal love affair of a failed artist whilst managing at the same time to offer up a lovely puppetry pastiche and a very nicely turned piece of writing.

Any show that incorporates a joke about dramaturgy in its opening sections is likely to take up a warm place in my heart, and as Roberts plays with our dramatic expectations by undercutting a classic ‘rule of three’ comedy horror movie feint it’s clear we are in the hands of a confident and witty writer. The macabre tale is preposterous, hilarious and nicely formed, with just enough of the genuinely unsettling to animate its horror ambitions within a firmly tongue-in-cheek frame. I won’t easily forget his comments about the shadows that live in the corners of skirting boards. The smallness of the space is unforgiving, but the simple puppetry is detailed and well choreographed, helped by some effective voice work that grants the sock a rich Yorkshire tenor (and if that seems a little easy to reach for, Roberts also turns out an all to identfiable Shoreditch art dealer-spic and a fruity academic critic to great effect).

The combination of strong puppetry, writing and deftly confident solo performance makes for a brilliantly comic show, contained in its ambitions but perfectly formed. This is an artist whose work I look forward to seeing much more of.