Are You Mad at Me? review: The audience can barely catch a breath through their laughter

Are You Mad at Me?

International Bar

★★★★☆

Halfway through Fiona Frawley’s hour-long stand-up set, the audience can barely catch a breath through their laughter as they’re shown a slideshow of Anne Boleyn, Marie Antoinette and Princess Diana, women who society punished for “being younger and hotter” than their husbands and never got to make their “comeback podcast”.

There isn’t one central theme to the show, the comedian insists, zipping between niche pop-culture references, her experiences in the service industry and in her relationships, and tackling feminist issues with quick-witted millennial humour.

“Everything in the world is f**ked, but pop culture is doing great,” Frawley tells her audience, describing the 2000s trends that have bewildered her as they crept back in, from low-rise jeans to Bertie Ahern’s recent reappearance in the political sphere.

[ Dublin Fringe Festival: Full coverage here ]

The Victorian-pub surroundings of the International Bar are adorned with shiny pink-foil curtains and pink lighting for Frawley’s set, which explores her paranoia that people she knows, and even people she doesn’t, could somehow be mad at her, and how that feeling aligns with the paranoia of generations of women before her.

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No matter how worried those in the crowd might be about their ability to make others mad at them, they should always remember the ancient Irish proverb “Nobody’s lookin’ at ya”. Frawley makes difficult topics seem effortlessly funny, keeping her audience laughing right through to the end.

Continues at the International Bar, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Saturday, September 16th