When Emma Sidi premiered Emma Sidi is Sue Gray at the Edinburgh Fringe, Gray was Labour's chief of staff. A speedy update was suddenly required for this London transfer when she became ex-chief of staff. "Regional envoy?" says Sidi/Gray glumly of her new job. "Like a carrier pigeon."
The current Taskmaster star was never going to deliver a straight humorous impression. Nobody knew much about Gray when she was chief of staff and nobody knows much now. This enigmatic aspect gives Sidi free rein to deliver a delightfully absurdist portrait.
Her Sue Gray sounds like she works behind the bar at the Queen Vic. She is a gossipy, hun culture creation in a Gap T-shirt who dishes dirt on "goofball" Rishi playing pranks with a stapler to try to be popular. She is keener on Keir, who, contrary to what you might think from watching PMQs, is "dripping in rizz."
What makes this monologue so entertaining is Sidi's utter commitment, taking a simple sketch idea – what if an EastEnders barmaid was a Westminster high flyer? – and pushing it beyond the limit. Even if we don't know Gray we know she is not this. An exercise in verisimilitude this ain't.
There are lots of neat touches, from imagining the current PM whisking her off to Burger & Lobster to a fiction about a lifelong feud with a top police officer. If you sit in the front row you may find yourself onstage when she pauses for a drink and pulls up members of the audience for literal watercooler moments.
It is an indication of Sidi's clowning chops that some of the funniest scenes are when she is silently giving audience members who nick her Jaffa cakes evils. On press night she was helped by fans who played along brilliantly.
The central story is Gray's Partygate role. "Muggins wrote the report," she humblebrags. It nearly didn't come out. She kept getting distracted by the Asos website and then got the hump when so much was redacted – she didn't even know you could get black highlighter pens.
At times this feels more like a piece of Marina Abramovic conceptual performance art than Pub Landlord-style character comedy. There are surreal Spanish asides, accounts of a killer elf and fantasies about Marvel superheroes.
In the end Sidi's Gray sides with Starmer despite being "strangely drawn" to Sunak. Perhaps things would have been different if he hadn't got soaked when he called the "Genny Lec". Should've bought a cagoule from Gap. But Keir has that rizz.
This marvellous show is unlike anything else I've ever seen. You will learn nothing whatsoever about Sue Gray, but maybe Sidi is right to suggest that government is just like any other job. Mostly bitching, beefs and lunches at All Bar One.
Soho Theatre, to November 2 then Southwark Playhouse, November 21 and 22; sohotheatre.com
