Rating: ★★★★ (4/5)
Reviewed by: Nati Ziv
Rachel Creeger’s Queen of the Jews! saw its name adopted from a hate comment, beginning the show as Rachel wishes to go on: adopting her Holocaust survivor grandmother’s attitude of giving everything a positive spin, and responding with kindness and warmth in the face of adversity.
The show primarily tackles Rachel’s own experiences of antisemitism in her life. It could easily be a very heavy subject, but Rachel deftly keeps the conversation light and entertaining while still holding space for the sober nature of such topics.
From having her own show, Ultimate Jewish Mother, cancelled at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe amid concerns that staff felt unsafe after threats to Jewish acts, to growing up on the National Front’s doorstep, where throwing stones at the synagogue and having swastikas stuck on windows (“swastickers”, she likes to call them) were not uncommon, Rachel is no stranger to racism. This show is her rebellion, in a way, proudly staying put and not having her spirit dulled for even a second.
Each antisemitic instance in Rachel’s life is categorised using the UK terrorism threat level guidance: mild, moderate, substantial, severe and critical. It’s a clever reference to how a person can become desensitised to objectively dangerous situations in their life when they become common enough.
She takes care of the audience, reading the room frequently and interspersing racism with “Rachism” (noun: a person who just doesn’t like Rachel) when things get tense. Her humour is satirical and witty throughout, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable hour listening to her put a positive spin on her stories.
