Baby Lame @ Pleasance Courtyard
It’s profane, excessive and juvenile, but Baby Lame's new show is probably one of the better interactive 'Britney Spears in Space' drag shows you’ll see this year
This is the semi-biographical story of Britney Spears, albeit with more murder, ducks and space aliens than we remember appearing at the VMAs. This cyberspace odyssey is everything that Baby Lame has cultivated a fan base for. It’s trashy, filthy, falling apart and full of energy. One moment the performer is rubbing their hairy chest into the face of the front row; the next, they are snacking on the meaty arms of audience members they’ve murdered and deep-fried.
With jokes stretching from alien snakes stuck up their anus, whipping up their skirt to showcase their bum, to a Ken Doll getting wedged up their backside, it’s anyone’s guess where their next punchline will come from. By the third time Baby Lame climbs over chairs, stumbling over their audience, the show's ‘rough around the edges’ charm begins to feel repetitive. Excessively rehashing the same punchlines established in the opening moments of the show in various guises leaves jokes feeling a little lazy towards the end.
This retelling of the Spears Saga sees her fire her agent, find true love and fly to far-away planets. Her shrill voice, scruffed-up school uniform and natty wig only add to this aggressively irritating pop star who befriends a duck and loves the dancefloor. It’s off the wall, it’s bizarre and it’s a great reminder of why the Fringe is so important.
It’s unquestionably smutty and potentially controversional by arguably lampooning a woman who’s been through hell. Reimagining her trauma with additional ‘ass monsters’ is possibly in bad taste – but as the show draws to an end, everyone is on the dancefloor firing through some of the biggest 00s hits. There’s a shoehorned emotional twist towards the end, in an attempt to elicit something more personal from the audience than obscene role plays and threats to run over Justin Timberlake.
It’s profane, excessive and juvenile, but it’s probably one of the better interactive 'Britney Spears in Space' drag shows you’ll see this year.
Baby Lame: Hit Me Baby One More Lame!, Pleasance Courtyard (Above), until 30 Aug (not 18), 10.50pm, £17.50/£16.50