Ozzy Algar: Speed Queen | Edinburgh Fringe comedy review
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Ozzy Algar: Speed Queen

Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Speed Queen is set in the last launderette on the Isle of Wight –  though it may as well be Royston Vasey. For the world Ozzy Algar has so completely built shares the same sense of isolation and unease as the League Of Gentlemen’s fictional town, while their alter-ego Pat is a quietly unsettling presence who would be right at home there.

She is something of a soothsayer, with the ability to see through time. While as the depository of the island’s dirty laundry – physically and metaphorically – she has the sinister air of an old woman who’s always known what’s going on behind the facade of civility. Some such happenings are beyond rationality, as her creepy tale of Dr Rohan and Juliana attests.

Performed in whiteface, it’s clear this show owes something to modern clowning tradition - and, before you ask, yes Algar did go to Gaulier. But while they play with the audience a little, showing a judgmental side and even persuading a few punters to contribute something I’ve not seen before, there are many more layers to the hour than that.

Reminding us that the old have a past, Algar takes us back to Pat’s youth with scenes of shabby wartime decadence, adjacent to burlesque and cabaret but at a slight remove. And they’ve got a sultry singing voice, effectively exploited. The melancholy evoked casts its shadow over Pat’s present, and the strange, sometimes morbid, stories of island life and its rich tapestry of eccentric characters.

Algar is a compelling performer who reels us into this world, then keeps us on board whatever surreal things happen within it. And while Speed Queen defies easy categorisation, the moments that are supposed to be funny most certainly are. Sometimes it’s something as simple as a non-sequitur that jolts us momentarily back to the real world, but there are solid jokes, too, often jet-black, plus sharply teasing crowdwork.

But at other moments, Speed Queen is surprisingly moving, nostalgic for a time that might never really have been. The late-night slot and subterranean venue add to the otherworldly vibes, so it might not be so effective in another time and place. But here it feels like a trip into a parallel universe, with laughs bridging the gap between here and there.

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Review date: 2 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Dome

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