Mercury rises as LJCC reaps Fringe benefits

"There are times in the show when the house lights are up and the cast are talking to you. In another scene, audience members are asked to call the paramedics and report 999 incidents. Things are different every night, which adds to the drama. We've had a really positive audience response so far."

Creeger says that being an Orthodox Jew has not held her back in mainstream theatre - and it's the same for South Hampstead shul-goer Debra Tammer, whose musical comedy A Mancunian Rhapsody is her Fringe debut.

"Thirty-nine going on 15" Tammer says her show combines the music of Queen and Jewish stereotypes. "It is all about this woman called Rivki who is trying to escape the domesticity of her life while preparing for Shabbes dinner. Like many religious people, she has a secret guilty pleasure - hers is 1980s music."

Sweeping her away across the stage with broom in hand, Tammer replaces the lyrics to I Want To Break Free with I Want to Clean House, raising questions along the way about the seeming mundanity of religious life."It's something I'm so familiar with. As a people, we are able to laugh at ourselves and I think that when you miss that, you are missing a trick. There is no subject that's off limits from talking about - although my mother would disagree."

The classically trained actress, who studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, likes "to do comedy with a message. That's why I have on my flyer the line, 'It's a kind of tragic'. My characters are funny but they are also flawed, just like the rest of us. We can all take something away from it. After all, who doesn't love Freddie Mercury?"

Camden Fringe

www.camdenfringe.com