I first saw Lorna Rose Treen at her Bedlam Late show, Midlands Child Syndrome, where she gave us just a snippet of her full hour show of character comedy, Skin Pigeon. Since then, Treen has won Dave’s Funniest Joke of the Fringe award, for a joke she described as ‘stupid’. Treen is only the second female comedian to have won the joke in 14 years.
Skin Pigeon is a truly delightful hour of character comedy, which covers a real variety of different characters. Not all characters land with all audience members, which cannot really be helped when the show attracts such a broad cross-section of society.
The star and host of the show is a nine-year-old Brownie character, loud and excited, who shows off her range of unusual badges. This character returns throughout the show, and is our eventual closing character. The close of the show proves how quickly Treen’s audience are endeared to her, as a man in the front row helps her out with something.
A personal highlight of Skin Pigeon is aimed at Sally Rooney who, in Treen’s show, is reading from a children’s book she wrote, ‘Normal Babies’, but with the same themes and similar story lines to Rooney’s adult books.
Other hits for me were the ‘femme fatale’ style chain-smoker, the fun and silly cowboy who had guns for hands and the song for weird girls. These characters involved some audience participation, as did several others, which worked in a fun way and didn’t feel at all intimidating or like people were being picked on, as audience participation sometimes can.
The characters change quickly- occasionally too quickly. Sometimes it feels like the characters are barely developed before we’re onto the next. But the ideas for characters and observations that have gone into making them are impressive and always on target. Another personal favourite for me was a surprise appearance that will leave you wondering whether it actually happened or not.
Skin Pigeon is an imaginative and hilarious hour of character comedy that features some great observations and wonderful characters. It has a real sense of childish silliness and pure joy that is sometimes rare to find.
Lorna Rose Treen: Skin Pigeon is at Pleasance Courtyard – The Attic at 4.35pm until 27 August.
Image provided to The Student as press material.