Raymondo is a spoken word story woven over the course of just over an hour by writer and performer Annie Siddons. It charts the exploits Raymondo and his younger brother, Sparky, who have been locked in the cellar by their mother for six years, and following an incident with a pigeon, manage to escape, only to be faced with the many perils the world outside can throw at you.

The set-up is very simple. With Tom Adams skilfully providing a soundscape with electric guitar and pedal, as well as occasionally chiming in with well-timed comic asides, the audience are in Siddons’ hands, as she narrates her story at a roaring pace. On a basic level, the fact that the audience are engrossed from start to finish, is testament to her energy and passionate delivery. As there is limited set and sound, it is up to her to bring variation to the narrative, which she does with aplomb. Her comic timing is well-considered, and often brings with it nice moments, where she breaks the fourth wall, emphasising a comforting feeling that she is directly telling us a story. Her treatment of the words is deft and, not only is the learning of all the lines some achievement, but the rhythm of performance, comic timing and changes in tone needed to continuously engage the audience have all been thought about very carefully. Little moments of pause, time away from the microphone, engagements with Adams and so on, made it a very natural performance. Of course, you would expect Siddons to understand the text well as its creator, but it still takes some real dexterity to produce a balanced performance for the audience. There are inevitable moments where the attention begins to wander a little, but she never fails to draw the audience back in.

Her writing mixes sweeping metaphorical images with excellent vocabulary, razor sharp moments of irony and hilarious imagery. The narrative is well-structured magical realism, with enough realistic plot to not be too surreal, but creative enough to lend itself to humour and whimsical twists – the boys finding a shop selling ‘a flapjack made of childrens’ laughter’ being my favourite. The story veers from one madcap episode to the other, while always retaining a clever, witty and not overbearing existential commentary, even at the climax of the play with its most tragic and consequently triumphal moments drizzled with metaphorical humour. It is spoken word at its most evocative.

Adams’ guitar-playing is subtle, but well positioned. It provides character to the words, while never threatening to engulf it, or divert the audience’s attention. Instead, it steadily builds an atmosphere, underscores the words, and provides clear signposting for the thoughts and feelings of the characters at given moments. His droll asides are not too much, but add a nice extra dimension of self-referential commentary to the story.

The stage is not big, and so what they do with the set is inventive. As it is a story being told very precisely through Siddons’ words, they do not require a set with grand design, and so, as with Adams’ soundscape, they find a lovely way to create atmosphere without pinning too much meaning on it. I count 17 lamps with various shades dotted around the stage, as well as four floor cans on a central rug and one bright red bulb. These lamps are placed on various levels with bedside cabinets and low tables scattered around. They very in colour from a soft, bright white to a dim, green glow. These, with two large rugs on the floor, evoke a sense of being next to a fireplace listening to a story, but with a curiosity and a magical quality with so many lights coming on and off. I feel it is a really successful way of showing subtle shifts in tone, as all of them could be changed in terms of brightness independent of each other, so the combinations available are extensive. The best examples of this are sections where Siddons is downstage centre, lit up by one single lamp placed at her feet.

The show has at its heart a simple concept that has been creatively embellished, without ever losing focus of the words as the most important element, which leaves us with a very well-balanced, enjoyable, funny production. If you can’t catch the show, definitely have a look at the script at some point, as it is well worth it.

Raymondo is playing Clapham Omnibus until 29 October. For more information and tickets, see the Clapham Omnibus website.