Lorna Rose Treen review: Uniquely creative - the possibilities are endless
Image: Will Hearle
I can’t remember how long ago it was, but the first time I saw Lorna Rose Treen perform, she did about 10 minutes at Piñata’s amazing comedy night. She did her film noir femme fatale (featured early on in her new show), spewing cigarettes and one-liners all over the front row. Since then, I saw her win two Funny Women awards at the same time (that’s a world record!!), one with this character, and one with her effervescent Brownie girl.
Somewhere in between those two was the most ambitious show ever attempted about two warring palaeontologists, Bone Wars, performed with the help of an overhead projector and hundreds of hand-made slides with bones on them. I hope to one day see that again, even if it’s played to an audience of me.
Whether she’s performing to a small attic room or a giant auditorium, the impact is the same — and she’s been the top recommendation from so many people.
There was never any fear of her not living up to the hype with Skin Pigeon. She’s just too good. But I still was completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume and variety she’s managed to pack into this hour.
After emerging from an extravagant fabric volcano, she opens with the Brownie girl, an enthusiastic bordering on combustible 9-year-old whose life has been ruined by the arrival of her mum’s boyfriend Darren, and who reappears throughout the show as an anchor between all the different faces she introduces. There is no limit, rhyme or reason to anyone we meet, and every character is more exciting, hilarious and bizarre than the last.
She gives just as much intensity to the smaller interludes (for example, a standing fan) as there is to the larger characters (a completely normal girl on Instagram, with all the right mantras and only one odd bodily appendage), and all of them are received by the audience with equal enthusiasm.
You just know that she’s got so many more of these up her sleeve that didn’t make it into the show (later in the day, I saw her perform as Cherie Blair alongside her partner and director Jonathan Oldfield’s Tony - amazing), which makes her all the more exciting. The possibilities are endless.
The roaring success of this show, and of Lorna’s comedy in general, comes from the unique creativity of her mind, and her ability to fully translate these visions into an undulating roster of batshit weirdos you can’t help but want to be around.
Lorna Rose Treen: Skin Pigeon runs at the Pleasance Courtyard (Attic) at 4:35pm, until August 27th. Tickets here (sold out, but definitely try on the day!)
