In their first new Fringe show in six years, the innovative Sheeps trio of Al Roberts Liam Williams and Daran Johnson prove that they can both dominate and destroy the genre.  They treat the decades-old conventions of the format with the same respect a far-right hate mob treats the windows of Greggs.

Take their excellent opening scene, a punchy parody of the sort of people who think ‘wokeness’ is somehow coming after their lifestyle, with Johnson’s character taking that irrational fear to absurd extremes. That’s a simple enough premise – although Sheeps are imaginatively unique in quite how it plays out.

Just when you think you know where you are with the skit, it morphs into something entirely different, with the comedians acknowledging that if feels weird not to follow the rules, but ploughing on regardless.  Later, they constantly confuse the audience as to what’s going on in a Lara Croft sketch by again riding roughshod over expectations of how these things are supposed to unravel.

Sheeps can do conventional jokey scenes – an Edvard Munch quickie proves that – but they also enjoy odd for odd’s sake, such as the guests with identically surreal problems in a hotel.

Later, there’s a stylistically similar burst of scenes involving skeletons – purportedly written by AI. These were, of course, terrible, but Sheeps ran the idea into the ground, to the absolute delight of a small percentage of the audience, although it just seemed frustrating to me.

So where have the trio been since 2018? Some sort of bust-up seems to have occurred, which they bring up,  raising an intriguing tension, but skimp on providing too many details.

Whatever the truth, it caused them to reevaluate what they are doing. They arrived at a similar conclusion that Tarot made much of in their last show: that sketch is a young comedian’s game. Mucking about with your mates is acceptable in your twenties, but isn’t it a bit tragic in middle age? 

Yet despite that flaming row, the trio still appear to be great pals with an instinctual on-stage dynamic. Although that could be fake, given how they are all such excellent, naturalistic actors.

If this is to be their swansong as Sheeps, as they suggest, they’ll have left a legacy of pushing the boundaries of sketch beyond their dismissive  – but pretty accurate – description of: ‘Person has breakdown, then leaves.’