A balmy Friday evening in an elegant theatre space near a well-stocked beer garden might draw the prospect of genuine happiness closer than it usually seems during the working week.

And in this upliftingly silly, maverick one-woman show, Svetlana, a self-help guru baring plenty of cleavage and the occasional deranged glint in her keenly analytical gaze, set tenaciously about the task of helping her small group of disciples find true joy.

Una, a miniature pink unicorn dangling on a string above her head, took some of the brunt of our frustrations, culminating in audience members attacking the pinata with one of the supportive host’s red stilettos.

There were sex simulations, group meditations and breathing exercises treading close to farce under the high camp and underlying malevolence of a comedy character whose surreal premise extended to testing the longevity of Smarties on guests’ tongues.

A saccharine dose of faintly maniacal therapy, this journey to self-healing was laced with innuendo, punctuated by song and concluded with a striptease. As an antidote to the tortuous confessions of the psychologist’s couch, it might just have worked.