Sire & Madge
★★★☆☆ Sweetly absurd
PBH’s Free Fringe @ Supercube George St (Venue 244): Mon 17 – Sat 28 Aug 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
Sire & Madge, written and directed by Elle Catherine Willcocks for Kittymilk at Supercube George Street as part of the Free Fringe, takes a true story and spins it into something decidedly odd but lovable.
Appropriately for a show taking place in a karaoke booth, it opens with a duet on I Know Him So Well that threatens to reach a level of cheesiness rare even for the Fringe. And there is plenty that is OTT to follow, not least Mary Hopkin’s version of Harry Nilsson’s deeply kitsch The Puppy Song.
Emma Ward as Sire. Promo pic: Kittymilk.
The narrative in between is more predictable, but only just. It deals with Pete Burns, the fashion icon and singer with Dead or Alive, and one of the first public figures to reject traditional binary gender stereotypes. In particular, while mentioning other moments in Burns’s career, it focuses on the peculiar episode when he was released from prison and forced to move in with the person who had paid his bail, a superfan (or possibly stalker) from Plymouth named Peter Quint.
Quint addresses Burns as ‘Madge’ (short for ‘majesty’) and adopts the name ‘Sire’ for himself. The portrait of a relationship based on utterly unequal desires, longings and fantasies is done in a sympathetic way.
Although billed as a play about ‘obsession, fantasy and fetish’ (and with some of the adult content you would expect in an 18+ only venue) it’s actually rather sweet. It deals more with the instinct to find yourself, and how that can impinge on your relationship with others and how they perceive you.
loose-limbed loucheness
Megan Crutchley plays Burns with an appropriately biting wit, but also has a more sympathetic side. Emma Ward plays both Quint and Burns’s partner Michael, displaying versatility, humanity and a humorous edge.
The production has a gloriously loose-limbed loucheness, enhanced by the limpid direction of Willcocks and Megan Fourie’s excellent costume design. It may even be a shade too restrained, even underplayed at times.
Admittedly, it’s difficult to really cut loose in a venue not much bigger than your average broom cupboard, where there is ample scope for things to go wrong. When there is the odd technical malfunction, Ward in particular shows a coolness and wit in reacting to the audience.
The play tries very hard to be absurd, but that absurdity is not always unconvincing. Instead, it’s the bittersweet personal connections, ruminations on lost love and lost potential, that have more power.
Running time: 45 minutes (no interval).
PBH’s Free Fringe at Supercube George St (Room 6), 58a George St, EH2 2LR. (Venue 244).
Monday 17 – Friday 28 August 2026.
Daily (not Sat, Sun): 3.55pm.
Free non-ticketed: Details here.
Instagram: @kittymilktheatre
Instagram: @siremadgefringe
Linktree: @kittymilktheatre.
Megan Crutchley as Madge. Promo pic: Kittymilk.
ENDS
