Given the set-piece with which Marjolein Robertson opens her latest Fringe show, this is ironically a less messy, more structured hour than her memorable breakthrough last year, but is almost as impactful. Initially indulging the caricatures of her Shetland home as a backward but mystical place, where she and her brother allegedly participated in cannibalism and harmless games of life and death, the accomplished storytelling comic has dialled down her native folktales in the mix, only occasionally returning to seasonal parables of Sea Mither and Teran as an adjunct to her deeply personal saga.

Beginning with the bloody cycle of life she witnessed at her family farm and proceeding through her rudimentary, confusing education on menstruation as a 12-year-old, O discloses the mysterious condition Robertson suffers from, which left unchecked could have fatal consequences. Having undergone virtually every form of contraception treatment to prevent it, the body trauma has been hers since adolescence. Naturally, this plays a part in shaping her dark sense of humour.

Although the show gets bleaker and more serious, with Robertson ultimately relating her travails to the ailing health of the NHS, she’s always a vivacious, puckish comic whose quirks set her apart as a unique act. 

Marjolein Robertson: O, Monkey Barrel The Hive, until 25 August, 5.40pm; picture: John Carolan.