Justin Elizabeth Sayre @ Underbelly Bristo Square

Before Justin Elizabeth Sayre even steps on stage, Old Hollywood show tunes fill the room, setting the tone for a fittingly regal entrance. Sayre arrives centre stage in a royal purple two-piece pyjama set, a string of pearls, black pumps, and a self-described “charcoaled beard”, delivering every line with effortless composure and faultless diction.

Themes of ​empowerment and rebirth drive the show. The 40-year-old woman in question marks the person Sayre has become both on stage and off, standing as a personal milestone of self-acceptance. The comedy comes directly from the often-difficult journey to get here, through stories of a mother falling pregnant at a Fleetwood Mac gig, speech therapy lessons that turn a stutter into a grand MGM-style bellow, digs at Nigel Farage and Donald Trump, and sharp observations on the daily assumptions surrounding their gender and sexuality.

​This state of mind relies on neither physical age nor gender. Instead, it is about being fierce, staying fearless, holding outspoken opinions (“the British being way too polite!”), and “standing into one's power.” Ultimately, the performance is a love letter to the women who have raised and inspired them, from Bette Davis to their namesake, Elizabeth Taylor. Sayre speaks about their grandmother, whose presence and influence as a 40-year-old woman was not defined by biological age. The show also pays tribute to a generation of lost artists and unseen friends Sayre never met, taken too early by the AIDS crisis and denied their own chance to reach “40-year-old womanhood”.

Sayre lays everything bare, confronting past self-doubt and the painful internalisation of being “too much”. The audience leaves genuinely inspired, having connected with Sayre far deeper than a 45-minute show usually allows. Like any good therapy session, the performance puts the room through a whole mix of emotions, leaving us with a shared push to find the 40-year-old woman inside all of us.

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Justin Elizabeth Sayre is a 40-Year-Old Woman, Underbelly Bristo Square (Dairy Room), until 30 Aug (not 17), 6.10pm, £15.50/14.50