Leaving aside the many programmers regularly pulling 20-hour shifts in May, John Robertson must be the hardest-working performer in this year’s Fringe.

Not only has he brought his acclaimed semi-improvised show The Dark Room to Upstairs At The Three And Ten, which won the first Fringe Argus Angel of the year, but he is also testing out a new stand-up show and starring in the title role of one of the most challenging plays in the English canon.

“The last time I wanted to play Hamlet I was at drama school,” says the Australian comic, now based in London. “I was told this was the most difficult play in the English language.

“After ten years as a stand-up you learn how people work and what they are doing. You come back to this story of a conflicted young man having the worst things happen to him and it makes real sense.”

This new condensed version of Hamlet is set in a future dystopia, with Robertson joined by two actors playing every other role that isn’t the Dane.

“It’s not played for laughs, although we do approach it with a sense of lightness,” says Robertson. “We move between emotions – as a comedian you do it all the time unless you are just standing there telling jokes. I don’t want to say it is a tremendous bloody challenge – although it is. It feels more of a great adventure.”

As well as tackling the Bard, Robertson is testing out material for a new stand-up show A Nifty History Of Evil, which he debuted at the start of the Fringe and is continuing in the final week.

“Everything I ever wanted to do was have a dark connection with the audience,” says Robertson, who lived in Brighton’s Surrey Street for a while “within spitting distance of the train station and two sex shops”.

“The first thing I want to do is shake the audience up, then I can rebuild them so we can have a beautiful time together."

His Nifty History combines tales of the Marquis de Sade with puppetry, as well as the first vampire thrown out of the Garden Of Eden.

“Human history is interesting,” he says. “Comedy is tragedy plus time. If you want to say something about what’s going on in Russia and Ukraine you don’t have to talk about what’s going on now. You can talk about a massacre in Ukraine under one of the old tsars.

“I was given a book when I was a kid called History’s Greatest Battles – one of those books which is great for a young boy full of storm und drang.

“My father was an Anglican priest – I remember walking around and telling him that Genghis Khan used to be referred to as the wrath of God. After that I appeared in one of his sermons for the first time...

“This show is my attempt to clamber into the pulpit.”

It was some onstage improvisation which gave rise to his biggest hit to date – The Dark Room.

“I was doing a show in front of 1,500 people and we were having a rowdy time,” he recalls. “I started improvising around old video games and how hard they were.

I got the engineer to turn off the lights in the theatre and started to say: ‘You find yourself in a dark room’.

The crowd began to play along. It was the best thing ever.”

After the show he found the idea was gaining traction on Facebook, and worked up a highly addictive interactive version of the show on YouTube.

Focusing on Robertson’s heavily made-up face against a black backdrop, it’s the sort of click-through adventure which can send a player insane and eat up hours of time.

It wasn’t long before the YouTube hit found its way back on to the stage as an interactive show in the Edinburgh Fringe 2012.

And it is possible to complete the show.

“Brendon Burns won,” admits Robertson, saying the show combines improvisation with a structured framework. “He managed to get into the skull of the show and figured it out.

“The next night Stuart Goldsmith won – but he had been sitting next to Brendon the night before.”

The Dark Room works best in an intimate space – with Robertson allowing up to six people to play on the night before the whole audience gets a chance to have a go.

“When the audience takes part it is wonderful as they have learned something from the other people playing,” says Robertson.

“Sometimes people get wrapped up in the fantasy. We’ve done sessions which have lasted three hours!”

  • Hamlet – Brighton Fringe is at The Old Courtroom, Church Street, Brighton, Thursday, May 15, to Sunday, May 18, 9.15pm, £8/£6
  • John Robertson: The Dark Room is at Upstairs At Three And Ten, Steine Street, Brighton, from Friday, May 23, to Sunday, May 25, 5pm, £8.50
  • John Robertson: A Nifty History Of Evil is at Laughing Horse @ Caroline Of Brunswick, Ditchling Road, Brighton, from Monday, May 26, to Thursday, May 29, 9pm, free, call 01273 917272