EdFringe 2022 Review: Final Baby Girl!

As energy levels begin to dip at the final hurdle of the Edinburgh Fringe, drag star Baby Lame delivers a punky adrenaline rush with her wildly entertaining Final Baby Girl! Blending a true adoration for all things horror with high camp narrative and well-utilised audience interaction, Baby Lame crafts a joyously scrappy good time.

Baby Lame recounts her troubled past in Assembly Studios’ The Flick before sharing her hopes of finding love. Exploring romantic rendezvous with Dracula, a hooked madman, and the Devil himself, Baby Lame sets her sight on a blood-hungry mystery caller who longs to make her his victim.

Entering The Flick we are greeted by Baby Lame, a figure of staggering height clad in a baby blue PVC dress, and adorning make-up that harks to mind Bette Davis’s legendary Baby Jane Hudson. The star immediately puts her audience at ease with selfies, hugs, high-fives and a sing-a-long to Justin Bieber’s Baby, whilst other tracks such as Whitney Houston’s I’m Your Baby Tonight make up the pre-show playlist. In crafting this fun, participatory atmosphere Baby Lame finds her supporting cast of players who will help fulfil her deliriously high camp horny fantasy in Final Baby Girl!

Steeped in a love of eighties horror, Baby Lame returns to the stage as How Will I Know blasts before she traces back her troubled backstory including abandonment by her obscenely wealthy parents, adoption by a family of circus freaks, and working as a gore cleaner on the set of 80s slashers. The performer finds humour in crafting the overtly cutesy persona of Baby Lame, the mannerisms of a young girl embodied by a tall, bearded drag queen.

The adoration for the horror genre is channelled in a spooky Summer camp story which manages to involve the audience with characters Susan the Bitch and Chad the Jock plucked from the crowd. Given Baby Lame’s skill in welcoming the crowd and creating an atmosphere of camp silliness, all are on board. Much of the narrative sees Baby recreating her romantic fantasies with a variety of horror figures – an I Know What You Did Last Summer inspired hooked fisherman and Dracula make up some of the sexually-charged comic set pieces – again with the audience pulled in for good measure. It’s all very amusing and deliciously silly.

Final Baby Girl! makes impressive use of audio and visual mediums – from an original take on Oleta Adams’ Get Here to the use of pre-recorded comic videos, one such capturing Baby Lame’s amusingly unsettling romantic fantasy with her Michael Myers inspired killer caller. The performer utilises every space in The Flick venue, immersing herself in the audience throughout.

Final Baby Girl! is a high-energy love letter to the horror genre, delivered with a hilarious sense of high camp sauciness. Baby Lame is a force to be reckoned with and is destined to join the pantheon of legendary final girls.

You can get tickets to Final Baby Girl! here.