Colchester Fringe Festival 2026
Final Queen
Grace Lightning (Harrison Sweeney)
Genre: Cabaret, character comedy, Circus, Clown, Horror, LGBTQIA+, Slapstick Comedy, Solo Performance, Solo Play
Venue: Dragonfly Lounge
Festival: Colchester Fringe Festival
Low Down
Circus and drag combine with horror tropes to become a relentlessly funny queer satire. As the body count increases, so do the laughs. Grace Lightning proves she is a queen to watch. Take note: this is the standard for drag.
Review
Final Queen follows Grace Lightning and her two drag besties Jazz Demon and Kelly Kinkora as they go on a road trip from hell to get to an audition for Kylie Minogue’s world tour. But an I Know What You Did Last Summer-inspired car crash into a dropbear leaves the girls lost and stranded in the Australian outback. Luckily, that old farmhouse on the hill probably has a phone and is not at all dangerous. Let’s split up so Grace Lightning does not have to keep playing all three characters at once!
What begins as Priscilla ends as Texas Chainsaw as drag, circus, and horror tropes combine. Grace Lightning switches between playing herself and multiple other characters, a balancing act as precarious as much of the circus acts she does through the show. And yet, it works perfectly. Each of the queens had a distinct personality and physicality. Kelly Kinkora read as the combination of Sex & the City’s Samantha and Mean Girls’ Karen. Likewise, Jazz Demon gave me washed-up, cigarette-smoking Dr.Mrs.The Monarch meets Judy Garland. Grace Lightning is the upbeat (and oblivious) final girl.
The three characters are endearing. The rest of the audience and I were genuinely sad as they met their horror film demises (which is more than I can say for most horror film body-count fodder). Even though Grace Lightning is alone on stage playing multiple characters, her physicality and movement are so well-performed you would believe an evil spirit was hurling her around. In particular, her “final queen” fight with the imagined serial killer is a lesson in great physical comedy. Every choice made here takes the campiness to the bloody extreme.
The structure of Final Queen is a loose thread of horror and plot to tie together a series of circus and tumbling-based drag numbers. Expect some ghosts, chainsaws, daddy koalas, necronomicon ancient word chants, serial killers, Kylie Minogue… the usual things you’d see in a bad B-movie. The madcap, hyper-speed, and relentless nature of the show kept any bit from feeling stale. I have seen other drag queens struggle to justify the full hour or tie any semblance of a show/plot together. Not here. No moment is wasted. Every number showcases Grace Lightning’s seemingly endless number of talents. Grace Lightning proves it possible to be an octuplet threat. Every moment, even the act of finding a phone signal, becomes an opportunity for Grace Lightning to show off one more feat of strength, flexibility, or comedy. It must be a workout to do this show, but Grace Lightning moves through it at lightning speed and with grace.
As a queer person and a horror fan, Final Queen was right up my dark alley. But even if you’re neither of those things, Final Queen offers so much jaw-dropping talent, acrobatics, and clowning that you cannot help but love it. Australia has brought the UK one of the maddest and silliest queer horror comedies. Grace Lightning is the standard for drag circustry. Take note, bitches, because Grace Lightning is here to slay.
