The faded camp glamour of the British seaside is personified by Pet, custodian of the Isle of Wight’s last laundrette, in Ozzy Algar: Speed Queen. A cross between Old Gregg and Catherine Tate’s ‘Nan’ character (complimentary, honest), Algar’s clothes-and-gossip launderer is well realised, even if, tonight, the crowd’s energy isn’t quite up to what the performance needs to truly soar.
Classically trained in clown-and-character comedy, Algar owns the stage from the beginning. A simple lighting set-up, along with the odd prop, creates a hermetic world from which to air the island’s dirty laundry: falling-outs with the inn-keeper; a youth’s body washed up on the shore; tall tales from all 150 square miles of England’s microcosmic oddity. Like Blackpool or any of Brighton’s lesser-known peripheral towns on the South Coast, the Isle of Wight is often nothing but a punchline in the British psyche; somewhere for a kitsch, nostalgic holiday. Pet is at once a celebration of Britain’s 20th Century optimism, and a ghostly reminder that people do actually live in these places, the squeak of the rusted ferris wheel in earshot.
Speed Queen will appeal to anyone who’s ever lived in a town where everyone knows everyone’s business, and will still impress those to whom that’s a foreign concept thanks to the undeniable talent of its writer/performer. A metamorphic, glamorous performance of an Edith Piaf-style musical number is a particular high-point. It counteracts the crowd work which, while Algar is excellent, is held back by tonight’s reluctant audience. Go along ready to get involved. Oh, and wear your best pair of socks. You’ll thank me.
Ozzy Algar: Speed Queen, Pleasance Courtyard, until 24 Aug (not 12), 10.30pm