Rachel Creeger’s new show, “Queen of the Jews” visited the Whitefield’s Garrick Theatre for two nights as part of Greater Manchester Fringe Festival 2026. It explores racism, specifically when Jews are the target, and the show’s title arose from an antisemitic message she received that ended with the question “Who do you think you are? Queen of the Jews?” All I can say is move over Nebuchadnezzar, you’ve lost your crown.
Rachel has an amazing strength of character, and an equally amazing ability to see the positive in any situation no matter how dire. The show covered a lot of ground, from her upbringing on a council estate next to the National Front’s HQ, through having her show cancelled at last year’s Edinburgh Festival (details), to confronting stereotypes head on (all Jews are rich being the mildest). There was a bit of audience participation in the form of preprinted questions, but there was also an opportunity to ask anything at the end. Things overran somewhat, but this is a work in progress, and her problem will be deciding what to prune.
The self-deprecating humour was from the heart as Rachel turned racism into Rachism – where she turns things around by seeing the absurdity in the abuse. When one troll alleged that Jews have horns she turned it around, saying if she had antlers they’d come in handy at Hannukah for the candles. How anyone can possibly believe it beggars belief, worse was when another alleged Jews eat babies. At another event several men turned their backs when she came on, but afterwards the joke was on them as the rest of the audience were in fits and they missed a good show. In the 3rd decade of the 21st century it’s impossible to understand how these beliefs and attitudes can still exist.
There were several playful jokes at her own expense (like the Irish, Jews tell their own jokes the best), but these masked deeper negative undercurrents, and occasionally took us out of our comfort zone. It’s needed.
The Garrick Whitefield was the perfect place for this tryout before she takes the show to Edinburgh, hopefully without any problems this time.
בְּהַצְלָחָה
Good Luck.
Paul Schofield for Canal Street Online.