The interval lights came up and I heard a woman say, “well I have no idea what’s going on, what the relationships are, who’s killed who – but I love it!” I feel like this is a good summary of what I watched last night.

Playground claims to be a murder mystery, where a series of decapitated children around London are discovered with one of Enid Blyton’s ‘Famous Five’ books on their bodies. In reality, it follows the lives of four mental health patients as they come together for a weekly book club in Victoria Park, with two clueless detectives mainly gazing at their own navels and each other.

Even before the play started I was taken aback by the set. One large scaffold creates opportunity for the actors to use the space in a really unique way, with four huge ‘Famous Five’ paintings covering the walls. I’d never been in this performance space before, but as it was a pub theatre I wasn’t expecting a lot of room – frankly I was impressed.

I think what I love about it most is its surrealness. From the outset we see the detectives not being too realistic in their performance (Dan MacLane commits to his bird-of-prey stare throughout the entire production). Cross-dressing Christopher James Barley should have auditioned for Margaret Thatcher, Queen of Soho his costume is so good – not so much the ‘Stewie from Family Guy’ voice, but we’ll have to let that slide.

Although the characters aren’t completely fleshed out – ex-boarding-school-turned-Communist Tamsin became a little repetitive – the performances are excellent. Richard Fish knows exactly when to provide the comedic timing, even if we feel a little guilty for laughing at someone affected by mental illness. Josie Ayers plays the perfect blend of clucking mother figure and unbalanced suicidal wreck, and is by far my favourite performer.

The sound and lighting aren’t intrusive either; I always find that when you forget about its artificiality, it’s doing its job right. The only thing I would say is the ‘Oranges and Lemons’ song is implemented for too long and, in the end, is just annoying. It doesn’t add that much to the performance and the ‘creepy child’s nursery rhyme’ trope is overused.

Overall however, it is this weird conglomeration of characters that unexpectedly fit really well together. Sometimes you don’t need something to make sense in order to appreciate it. You just love it because it’s bizarre.

Playground is playing at The Old Red Lion Theatre until 7 November. For more information and tickets, see the Old Red Lion Theatre website. Photo Cameron S Harle.