By Robert Bain

Writer-director Tom W Lister’s new play Sting For Nolte is pretty self-indulgent, so it’s a good thing that it’s funny as well. The premise, if you must know, is as follows. Philosophy lecturer Allen is staying up for the fifth night running to finish an important paper, when his long-suffering fiancée reveals his birthday present – tickets to see Sting in concert.

As soon as she’s out of earshot, Allen reveals the terrible crisis this puts him in: he can’t stand Sting. But there’s a glimmer of hope in the form of Nick Nolte, for whom he has a strange admiration. Clearly, he reasons, the only way out is for Sting to redeem himself by remaking every single one of Nick Nolte’s films. And TV programmes. And plays.

His idea might be off the wall but it rings true. There’s something unnervingly recognisable about this young man who really loves his girlfriend, and yet can’t get over the fact that she likes Sting and hasn’t heard of Nick Nolte.

The reasons why Allen feels this way about Sting and Nolte are of little consequence – he justifies his hatred of Sting on the basis of “the way he was sitting” on the one occasion that he happened to meet him.

The play’s heavy reliance on pop culture in-jokes is very much in fashion, and the idea of real-life celebrities in surreal situations is reminiscent of recent hits such as Being John Malkovich and Extras. But like these, Sting For Nolte only succeeds because there’s real humour and intelligence behind the novelty appeal.

Much of the play takes the form of a lecture delivered by Allen, played by Daniel Pirrie. It’s meant to be on Descartes, but he quickly abandons that to take us through the breakdown of his relationship with his fiancée and explain why “it’s all Sting’s fault”.

It’s a clever device, which quickly makes you forget that the man you’re watching is an actor rather than a real lecturer. “Fact: Sting is an awful, awful man,” Allen informs us, his students, as he painstakingly dissects his ruined life, with alternate scenes flashing back to the events he describes.

Allen’s lecture, complete with a lovingly crafted PowerPoint slideshow, is where Pirrie’s performance and Lister’s sparkling script really make the play shine. The more serious Pirrie’s character gets, and the more oblivious he is to how crazed he has become, the funnier he is.

Finnish actress Kati Markkanen is likeable as Allen’s fiancée Bessie, but is held back by having to deliver slangy English dialogue in a foreign accent – which never works. Markkanen has obvious talent and the script itself is mostly razor sharp, but a little more thought and a sprinkling of improvisation would have got a lot more out of both.

Towards the end of the play things get sillier and consequently slightly less funny, as Lister tries to trump the clever humour with a farcical climax. But there are still great moments, such as Allen’s response to questions from his imaginary students that the mess he describes may have been partly his own fault, and not Sting’s.

Sting For Nolte wears its offbeat premise on its sleeve – but in fact it’s something much better than just a gimmicky idea spread over an hour and a bit. It’s a convincing, down-to-earth comedy about a guy losing a girl and it’s very, very funny.

The production continues at the Old Red Lion, Islington, until February 3. With online booking.