Back in those halcyon days of 2023 Lorna Rose Treen won Dave’s Funniest Joke of the Fringe, with a one-liner that The Sun decided was so bad she had killed comedy. Well, it didn’t kill comedy or Treen’s career and in 2025 she is back with a pithy playlet which she quips might now kill theatre.
Except, as I said, The Sun was wrong about Treen killing comedy and if they say she has killed theatre this year they will be doubly incorrect. 24 Hour Diner People is a character comedy slash sketch show masquerading as a melodrama set in a classic old style US diner. Customers come and go, plots are hatched, laughs are frothier than the coffee being served.
The result is a great showcase for Treen’s skills both as an in-the-moment performer and a purveyor of jokes that are either absurdist or absurdly corny. There are plenty of the latter here that might just be contenders for another Dave award except that it isn’t being handed out this year. Treen is certainly not afraid to push her luck with dreadful puns and corny set-ups. You have to buy into her style, but rest assured it is not difficult to succumb to the sublime silliness.
For me the best moment was when she played a trucker with unfeasibly long arms, but others might prefer her excitable teen looking forward to her first date or a gangster planning a heist with a sidekick borrowed from the crowd.
The gentle, non-intimidating audience participation is served up alongside some surprise moments that you don’t see coming. And this is maybe what makes Treen so special. There are lots of sketch comedians who take you one way then another way. Treen takes you one way, then another way and then a few more ways.
24 Hour Diner People has a winningly distinctive feel and look to it, mixing the classic style of a 1950s pastel pink diner straight out of Back to the Future with decidedly clunky homemade props. I presume the blow-up sex doll that plays the waitress while Treen is in other guises is tax deductible.
Until August 24. Buy tickets here.
Picture credit: William Hearle
*I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah. Lorna Rose Treen
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