Animal Ink’s debut fringe show was in the grip of an identity crisis.

Listed as a cabaret event, it was difficult to establish whether this was a musical in miniature, a showcase for a new play, or a group of pals who’d got together at an open mic night.

A house band, fronted by Lee Ross of the Catherine Tate Show, kicked off the proceedings before a second song from American Music Club’s excellent Mark Eitzel gave way to the first of a series of extracts from Simon Stephens’s new play Marine Parade.

It was during these excerpts that the night was at its best, with Ross playing to his strengths as an emotionally repressed hotelier, but his grittily convincing portrayal disintegrated each time he burst into transatlantic-accented song.

He was joined in song by an undercover audience member, which was a pleasant enough surprise, but one that made me suspect everyone around me.

How long would it be before the woman who stamped my wrist on the way in stood up to drop a bass harmony into the mix?

The shame is that each of the acts – which also included a looped vocal arrangement, a nifty guitar demonstration and a short story – functioned perfectly well on their own, but in the absence of a compere or overarching theme, the evening felt rudderless.

Also runs on May 13.