The title says it all with this one: it’s a perfectly serviceable film-noir crime thriller, except that the detective’s a frog. And why is the detective a frog? Because it’s hilarious.

The washed-up amphibian’s played by Tom Collett, who sports green ears on his head and a froggy glove-puppet on his hand. His portrayal nods just enough to the embittered, wise-cracking, self-important archetypes of film noir, while winking subtly at its own inherent absurdity; an improvised section mid-show is a bold move which pays off handsomely, ratcheting up the air of playfulness another notch or two.

We also meet – as the genre demands – a potentially-corrupt police chief, an apple-pie American waitress with a heart of gold, and the denizens of a bar (from which our hero’s inevitably banned). The four-strong cast play each role with nuance and energy, making full use of their tiny performance space as they drive the story on.

The frog is persona non grata, it turns out, for the most gleefully puerile of reasons, and the ultimate show-down is deliciously absurd too. And yet there’s still a mystery, with red herrings and big reveals, plus callbacks to the clues we saw but missed along the way. It’s all profoundly silly, but it’s also a well-formed drama – and somehow, makes both those things work at the same time.

I should note that, on the day I attended, it clocked off a good bit short of its advertised 45 minutes – but it was the right length to tell the story, and then leave before the joke got old. And I’ll leg it as well, because too much analysis will spoil this one. It’s just funny. Hop to it.