The Cultured Culchie – Dublin Fringe Festival – Review
by Frank L.

Performances – 8 Sept, 18:00 (preview), 9 – 12 Sept, 18:00, 13 Sept, 13:00
Venue – The International Bar – Upstairs Space

The Cultured Culchie, written and performed by Sinead  Quinlan

The title “cultured culchie” has an oxymoronic quality to it, but of course, on reflection, there is no reason why a person from a remote location in Ireland cannot be cultured, even highly cultured. With long flowing blonde locks and wearing a white tracksuit with white runners, Quinlan appears to be quite a distance from being a culchie. She comes from Cork, but that of itself certainly does not make her a culchie. Definitely not, but it transpires early on in her story that an ex has told her that she passed the test to be a culchie, so culchie she is. But she is a cultured culchie.

At the beginning, to warm up the audience, she starts with quite a long preamble about an incident which happened to her on her arrival in a Dublin car park. It takes quite a bit of telling. She then launches into her routine proper, and she does so by making enquiries from members of the audience about where they come from. Needless to say, she gets a satisfying collection of culchie hotspots such as Westmeath and Laois. She also delves into people’s marital status, and before long, she has a working rapport with a couple of the members of the audience. She then entertains us with a series of anecdotes about her own romantic encounters or the pursuit of Mr. Right. She has been adventurous, and her destinations have included some unlikely spots, such as Ohio. She knows how to make the mundane comic.

She keeps up the patter at a good clip, and her audience is engaged. However, in her delivery, she has a habit of letting the phrase “d’you know what I mean?” slip in. Unfortunately, it appears a little too frequently. If you become conscious of it, it tends to distract. It’s a small quibble.

The length of her set, including the warm-up preamble, lasted over an hour. It is questionable whether the preamble added much, if anything, to the adventures which she told with aplomb. Quinlan has presence. She can and does with ease connect with her audience.