There was a moment when former civil servant Sue Gray suddenly became the most talked-about person in Britain, her investigation into Partygate never off the front pages. And yet Gray, now Keir Starmer’s chief of staff in Downing Street, has essentially remained an inscrutable enigma, an empty vessel into which Starstruck star and character comic Emma Sidi can pour in wild speculations about her character, including some outright and bizarrely fantastical fictions. Humanising the rather austere public servant, Sidi gives her a strong Essex accent, a predilection for gossip and a wavering, erotically charged relationship with power, alternatively compelled and repulsed by Starmer and his predecessor, Rishi Sunak.

Casting former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick as Gray’s nemesis is only one of the tinier bits of artistic licence that Sidi employs. She’s also persecuted by a crazed, knife-wielding elf. And fans of the comic’s La Princesa de Woking series will appreciate the Hispanic telenovela dialogue she slips into in order to give the narrative an extra ridiculousness and zip, thought it felt too much of a retread and padding. Still, the game Sidi truly sells her conceit, clearly relishing this portrayal, with the hour romping along amusingly. 

Emma Sidi Is Sue Gray, Pleasance Courtyard, until 25 August, 4.15pm; main picture: Matt Stronge.