If you are worried that your energy bills are going to be too high this winter plug into Sara Barron. The London-based US comic has what is known as "American Energy" – she is brassy, loud and an unstoppable force and showcases these qualities to great effect in her new show Hard Feelings.

Barron is 42 and gets plenty of mileage out of her mileage on the clock, particularly being told you look good for your age. It's the kind of sentence that is meant as a compliment but also comes loaded with an undertow of excess baggage. Barron knows it and squeezes all the laughs possible out of it. 

The difference in the way men and women age is another familiar old topic – why does society think dads are hot, mums are meh – but Barron is very good on getting straight to the heart of the matter with no shilly shallying. She is also good on the subject of relationships in general, explaining that she is happy to trade sexual favours in return for avoiding certain chores and coming to the rescue when her English husband needs medical help after finding blood in his urine.

"I'm pushy by American standards," she explains. If you are a man planning to come to see this show be prepared to cross your legs and wince during her description of her other half's hospital treatment.

But behind the brash, fast-paced comedy there is a more touching story about trying to conceive via IVF. If you can find humour here, as she does when she recalls an incident while watching Hot Tub Time Machine 2, you can find humour anywhere. Things don't go to plan and there are some emotional bumps in the roads along the way until Barron, once again, decides to take matter into her own hands as only she knows how.

You'll have to buy a ticket to find out exactly what happened but if you like your comedy frank and full-on this certainly hits the spot. Oh, and she also has the last word on wasting your life shopping for pasta.

Until August 28. Buy tickets here.

four stars