Duane Stanford and Lina Zikas greet us from the stage, resplendent in crisp white lab coats and standard-issue safety specs. They’re specialists in CRISPR, the gene-editing technology (don’t worry, I hadn’t heard of it either), and they’re six months into a series of thrilling attempts to develop a drought-resistant soybean. We in the audience are cast as undergrads, about to choose research projects for our final year. And to persuade us to pick their lab, they’ve prepared an informative… musical?

From there the story heads in some radically unexpected directions, which of course I’m not going to spoil. But you can look forward to dastardly antagonists, movie parodies, a pun so atrocious it stops the show, and – best of all – a gleefully farcical showdown in the genetics lab, where the actors repeatedly exit as one character and enter as another a few seconds later.

The songs are witty and catchy enough, and the duo’s singing voices are strong, but what sets this show apart is its sheer physicality. Whether they’re nailing a slo-mo fight sequence or enjoying an uninhibited “dance break”, the pair are always on the move – lending the whole production an energetic and relentlessly upbeat vibe. It’s wilfully absurd at times too, never more so than in the opening number with its singing human cell.

CRISPR! isn’t a serious approach to the controversies surrounding genetic modification, and nor should it try to be. But it does touch on all sides of the debate: the hope that technology can cure disease and combat world hunger, alongside the near-existential risks and fears it triggers too. The balance feels right overall, embracing the optimism and energy found at the cutting-edge while humorously recognising that, like all of us, scientists can be motivated by selfishness as well as altruism.

There’s no denying this show is niche: there are frequent academic in-jokes which went down a storm in the room, but might sail over your head if you’ve never been anywhere near a university lab. The intricate edifice of shows-within-shows can get a touch too complex at times, and overall I’d have liked to see a little less talking and one or two more songs.

But I suspect we’re getting a trimmed-down version here; if so, I’d love to have the chance to experience the whole thing one day. Right now, CRISPR! is tuneful, funny, silly and surprising: a fast-paced romp that takes a serious subject, and runs with it to places you’d never have imagined. Goofy and creative, it’s very much the Fringe’s DNA.