Comic, but without much in the way of relief, Tim Crouch’s bravura one-man crowd-baiter of a show returned on Friday night, complete with that essential set-piece for any audience, young or old: how to help hang a man.

Two little girls went home wondering – possibly - what might have happened to the funny/scary man in the dirty underwear had they gone ahead and pulled the chair away.

The comedy of I, Malvolio, (one of Crouch’s series of Shakespearean retellings) lurks somewhere in a deep and squalid crevice that nestles between entertainment and, say, a public execution. “Have you seen bear baiting?” asks a weary, dishevelled and unsanitary Malvolio, goading the audience to do their worst.

What could be funnier, he asked bitterly in Shakespeare’s brutal argot, than kicking an old man in the arse? We’re laughing, yes, but it hurts.

With the house-lights up throughout there was no escape either from Crouch’s brilliantly scripted rapid-fire invective, or from his improvised roving assaults on the audience.

I, Malvolio was definitely not for the faint-hearted, but should fainthearts find themselves there because someone else has booked the tickets on their behalf, then they’d be well advised to avoid the front three rows.