For anyone in the audience who had ever felt intimidated when dealing with an aggressive builder, Tom Dussek’s expletive-ridden outburst as he arrived on “stage” for this one-man show would have rung true.

Portraying a carpenter in the perfect setting of this wood-recycling warehouse, Dussek spent an hour opening up the psyche of an embittered middle-aged everyman as he refurbished a sash window for a rich customer.

With laugh-out-loud, foul-mouthed diatribes about students, fake-friendly major DIY store workers and posh architects offset by warm tales of love for his children and real craftsmanship, this was a rounded, tragicomic characterisation.

With the majority of this small crowd apparently middle-class and our TV-loving protagonist profoundly not, there was always the danger of a bunch of toffs laughing at the working-man’s fate. Knowingly, Dussek worked in astute observations on physical aggression being his only weapon against emotional and financial aggression from those further up the food chain. This worked best when the audience was fiercely accused of exploiting cheap labour in brutal, direct terms.

Ultimately moving, thoughtful and hilarious, best of all Doing What It Says On The Tin refused to fall into that old trap of being patronising, instead offering a compassionate understanding of life’s complex cruelty.