Scotland

Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People – Pleasance

Well, don’t make the same mistake I made by queuing like an idiot at Below instead of Beneath. I should have figured when I was the only one waiting in line!

Lorna Rose Treen follows up last year’s Skin Pigeon with a more cohesive, diner-themed hour that’s still packed with the absurdity and oddball characters she’s known for. From a long-armed trucker to a teenage orthodontic nightmare, it’s silly, self-aware, and frequently hilarious, even when it knowingly “fails” at its own stated mission.

If you enjoyed Skin Pigeon last year, you will love this. Here, the whole thing revolves around an American diner, albeit a diner as seen through Treen’s surreal lens, and also around her tongue-in-cheek mission statement: having allegedly “broken comedy” in 2023 with her Dave’s Funniest Joke of the Fringe win (for a joke so bad it was good), she now sets out to break theatre in the same way. Her first victim, musical theatre, is spectacularly slaughtered in the first five minutes, with the sort of schmaltzy show tune that would have the audience clapping and wiping a tear away if it were not delivered in Treen’s trademark high wavering American squeal! Hilarious! No one can argue that the absurdity of America is not an easy target and Treen gives it both barrels, literally and metaphorically!

The show continues at a brisk pace, and with boundless enthusiasm she pulls it off, particularly in the first half. The conceit allows her to thread a parade of grotesque and gleefully daft characters through one location: a trucker with improbably long arms (which works far better in the flesh than it sounds), a teenage girl with a dental brace that juts a good six inches beyond her mouth (equal parts ridiculous and brilliant), and a spy character, resurrected from Skin Pigeon, now disguised variously as a paper, a tablecloth, and even a rucksack “borrowed” from an audience member.

Audience interaction is used well here, as in one memorable moment when she sits next to someone about to take a photo. “I’ll pull a funny face,” she says, before pulling the face of the person sitting next to the photographer. She then deadpans that her dad made that joke. It was a touching moment!! Boom Boom, there’s one free from me. But, the kind of pun that captures her comedy perfectly: knowingly corny, self-referential, and fully committed to the bit.

One running gag sees her “eating” money, with a special fondness for American dollars because, she says, they’re always covered in cocaine. Later, when she jumps up and down, she rattles with all the coins and notes supposedly inside her. These silly asides are typical of Treen’s ability to mine laughs from the most ludicrous premises.

Not every character lands as strongly. Some sketches feel more like loose doodles than fully realised personas, and the pace dips slightly when the premise leans too heavily on the idea of being “bad on purpose.” But when the energy is up, the inventiveness and speed of her transformations keep things buzzing. In any case I honestly feel that Treen enjoys the groans as much as the laughs.

There’s a through-line of playful chaos, the sort that makes you feel the show could veer off in any direction at any moment, and sometimes it does. Props are knowingly low-fi, the diner set is more suggestion than realism, and there’s a gleeful disregard for polish. Treen’s skill lies in making that looseness feel intentional rather than sloppy.

By the end, you’ve met a full gallery of oddballs and absurdities, stitched together with a mix of puns, visual gags, and pure silliness. It’s very much a Lorna Rose Treen show: unashamedly weird, happily inconsistent, and frequently laugh-out-loud funny. You may leave wondering if she really has “broken theatre,” but you’ll also leave with a grin. Treentastic!

16:20 Daily (except 12th) Till 24th August

https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/lorna-rose-treen-24-hour-diner-people

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 13th August 2025

North West End UK Rating: