SOHO THEATRE – UNTIL 13th SEPTEMBER 2025
Reviewed by Jackie Thornton
4****
Fresh from a successful Edinburgh run, Lorna Rose Treen’s brand of exuberant, zany character comedy makes its way to the Soho Theatre. Here she teams up again with director Jonathan Oldfield, who directed her multi-award winning show Skin Pigeon, to write and perform a fun-filled and imaginative hour of character sketches loosely held together by the American Blue Tit diner setting. And if you’re expecting a passive ride then you’ll be sorely disappointed as Lorna taps into the audience for cameos and good old fashioned crowd participation. Leave your inhibitions at the door.
The archetypal 1950s style diner pings with brash pinks and greens tying in seamlessly with “always the waiter, never the wait” Lorna in her cute waitress uniform, made by her sister Jennie, and even managing to include inflatable boobs which two gallant audience members attempt to inflate.
As well as the waitress, she brilliantly inhabits a grotesque and horny teenage girl, an undercover spy and a curiously limbed truck driver. Her skill is in drawing on stereotypes and contorting them into wackier versions of familiar tropes. Lorna’s multi-layered and distinctive sense of humour flips from puns to farce to satire to outrageous visual gags in the blink of an eye. There’s also a wonderful self-awareness as she regularly breaks the fourth wall, allowing us into the messy, haphazard construction of the show. It’s here that the true magic can be found.
This is a show that sets out to entertain and is armed with a million tricks up its sleeve to ensure there’s a joke for everyone.