Morrie is a laid back, unisex hairdresser with a more liberal attitude to the world. He lives in fantasy where women find him irresistible and his father was some sort of super-Dad with an amazing array of achievements: "He was the only British boxer to box at every weight".

He also shoots amateur porn on the side and for a while we are led to suppose that this is where Ted's interest lies. It isn't; Ted had an hallelujah moment reading Walden Two by EF Skinner, a 1940s sci fi novel about changing human behaviour. Inspired he seizes upon a chance to not only create a society based on cleanliness and good behaviour but in being the leader he can elevate himself above the sea of forgettable ordinariness. The film Morrie is to make is a promotional video for Ted's demagogic utopia. Ted believes he is on the cusp of something big.

The two are oddballs and oddly complementary as friends and Bean mines their contrasting characters and outlooks for much of the humour.  References to Greeks "They peaked too soon" and xenophobic comments about newspaper stories give the play resonance today.

While One Man was a farce full of belly laughs The Mentalists' sometimes dark, absurdist subject matter by comparison is somewhat subtler. The first half is a little slow but the second half comes together nicely as the tension is ramped. There are a good handful of laugh out loud moments - Bean has written some brilliant one liners - but the overall feeling is one of amusement rather than out and out hilarity.

The Mentalists is on at the Wyndhams Theatre until September 26 and is one hour and 50 minutes long including an interval.