Having seen the Hiccup Project’s last show, May-we-go-Round, I can’t wait for this inimitable duo’s next outing, It’s OK I’m Dealing With It, which comes to The Courtyard on March 14.

Wit and poignancy aside, one of the most impressive aspects of that first show was the energy level, which didn’t drop from start to finish, but as Cristina MacKerron, who, with Chess Dillon-Reams, are The Hiccup Project, explains: “There’s a flow to the show so we know what’s required, and the more we do it the more we get used to it, but it is intense! We live our lives utterly exhausted.”

Even though the shows are structured, there are moments of what Cristina calls structured improvisation “though we always know what’s going on, but for the audience it’s enjoyable because it’s new for us. We feed off the energy of audiences so we need to be bringing a fresh energy.”

Where May We Go Round plundered the pair’s teenage diaries to take a wry look at young love, It’s OK I’m Dealing With It was prompted by the discovery that both had suffered accidents to their teeth, something they’ve subsequently learned happens to more people than they’d ever imagined, and led them to considering the associated vulnerability and then the wider issue of vulnerability generally.

“It’s OK I’m dealing with it looks at what it means to be vulnerable,” says Cristina, “and why it’s so difficult to talk openly when we’re struggling.

“We have had such fantastic feedback to the work, it’s quite overwhelming. We had given voice to this subject that people felt hadn’t been voiced on stage, but we really really wanted to bring a lightness to the topic.”

“We’ve known each other since we were 13 or 14,” says Cristina, explaining how The Hiccup Project originated. “We met at school, went to the same college and then lived together,” she says. “But we had no intention of working together, not because we didn’t want to but because we didn’t realise how strong our interest was in this kind of work. We hadn’t identified it in ourselves.”

It was when they began “messing around in studios” on their return to Brighton that they realised they might have something ... “We put all our energy into the Brighton Fringe in the autumn of 2014 and that was kind of our big moment, as the show got a brilliant response and gave us a lot of momentum. And what was so nice is that it was never planned.

It’s OK I’m Dealing with It will be at The Courtyard on Wednesday, March 14. To book, call the box office on 01432 340555 or visit courtyard.org.uk.