Lorna Rose Treen won the 2023 Joke of the Fringe competition with: “I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah.”
Now after another run at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer, she’s returning to the Soho Theatre this September with her latest show, 24 Hour Diner People – one described as a nonsense-soaked, joy-fuelled live-cartoon and a character comedy love letter to the gloriously ridiculous.
Set in a liminal American diner where logic is left at the door and absurdity rules the menu, the show offers up a “full-fat collection of eccentric, escapist, and delightfully silly characters – all served with a side of proper jokes. Expect to meet a waitress who dreams of flying, a trucker with unusually long arms, a woman who’s kept her umbilical cord, a 1960s spy on a caffeine high, and a teenager giddy from her first kiss – all somehow coexisting in a strange, time-warped roadside diner.”
The show is directed by Jonathan Oldfield and features music composed by Jonno and a set designed by Jimmy Slim.
24 Hour Diner People plays Soho Theatre from September 8-13, 2025. Tickets here.
Top image: Lorna Rose Treen. Credit William Hearle (image supplied)