It’s unlikely a cabaret show has ever been pitched before as ‘Gloria Swanson meets Fleabag at a wake.’ But it seems an apt tagline for Kat McGarr’s absurdist debut solo show, Stardust. Featuring fallen cosmic being Star Dust, who is painted entirely gold, McGarr promises a journey through grief, enlightenment and spirituality, complete with a couple of power ballads and plenty of laughs. This premise was born following the deaths of both her parents: unusual inspiration for a comedy cabaret, but as her audiences will learn, grief works in mysterious ways.

Stardust has been a long time coming, and McGarr is ‘trusting the cabaret gods’ for its success. She has spent years performing with theatre companies like Punchdrunk with the aim of eventually creating her own show: this year, her comedy-variety cabaret finally reaches fruition. ‘It was hard to categorise it just as cabaret,’ McGarr explains. ‘It’s theatre in a way; and it’s cabaret because she’s singing and she’s gold; and it’s comedy because you have to laugh. Otherwise, it’s very gloomy.’

The outlandish character of Star Dust emerged from a prolonged period of grief following the passing of McGarr’s parents. Looking for light in the darkness and with an unyielding need to create, she began to paint everyday items gold, from leather jackets and shoes to pieces of her own furniture. ‘It’s such a bizarre thing that you can’t understand: where people go when they die and how you can mend your heart,’ McGarr says candidly. In a search for answers from the universe, she found herself drawn to the colour. ‘Inadvertently, gold is quite a divine colour and there’s a certain amount of spirituality to it. The last thing I was painting gold, which was a piece of furniture, I think, made me realise that gold had been a very big theme in my life for months.’ And it was then that the sheen from all the items she had painted triggered an epiphany in her. ‘You feel so dark inside at times, but this was paired with this mad enlightenment because, in a way, you never feel more alive than when you’re living with death and really understanding it.’ Her awakening birthed the character of Star Dust, a fallen star who understands the secrets of life, death and the universe.

And what about that tagline? ‘Because of the grief element and the humour and a woman on her own processing it, it just sort of felt right [to reference Fleabag], mixed with the absurdity of matching her with [silent movie icon] Gloria Swanson,’ explains McGarr. When asked to sum up her cosmic comedy concoction in just three words, she unsurprisingly chooses just the one, which those who experience her show will learn the true meaning of: ‘gold, gold and gold.’

Stardust, Underbelly Bristo Square, Wednesday 30 July–Sunday 24 August, 5.25pm; main picture: J Jackson Ducasse.