Freddie Meredith’s Need a Light? turns the awkwardness of being alone at a party into a comic but ultimately warm-hearted hour. Set in a nightclub smoking area, it follows an anxious would-be socialiser trying desperately to make friends, and the review argues that Meredith makes the character both painfully funny and genuinely sympathetic.

Known from television roles including Big Boys and Such Brave Girls, Meredith plays a socially insecure man in unfashionable “dad-wear”, whose clumsy attempts at conversation lead to routines about house parties, toilets, urinals and a Lady Gaga karaoke duet. While some sketches reportedly push the premise, the review says the show’s tenderness and Meredith’s audience interaction give it an uplifting conclusion; it runs at Pleasance Courtyard in Edinburgh until 30 August.