 You walk into the theatre and are immediately surprised: a lectern, an urn, and a framed “in memory of…” photo await you. Have we stumbled into a funeral or a festival show? In this wonderfully meta and immersive piece, playwright and performer Anthony Maranville reconstructs the surreal experience of turning up to his grandmother’s funeral only to find he was the sole guest.
Armed with her so-called “Book of Truths,” Maranville begins to unpick the web of lies she told throughout her life, slowly realising how many family members she may have alienated in the process. What emerges is not simply the portrait of an eccentric matriarch or a “character,” as people often politely say but of a deeply flawed woman whose contradictions impacted everyone around her. The audience becomes her congregation, a roomful of “paid mourners” as Maranville delivers the eulogy. He resurrects her spirit on stage with humour, tenderness, and exasperation, weaving his own conflicted history into the ritual. In an ingenious twist, the tech desk itself becomes part of the funeral service, cueing up a strange, Western-inspired soundtrack that underscores both the absurdity and dark comedy of her life and this experience. What Maranville captures so brilliantly is how family myths linger long after those who created them are gone. Like in Big Fish, where tall tales blur the line between truth and invention, his grandmother’s story becomes larger than life. The contradictions don’t diminish her; they magnify her. Through anecdotes that teeter between outrageous and poignant, Maranville paints a portrait that feels at once deeply personal and universally recognisable: the messy legacy of family. It’s no surprise that Maranville also penned one of the most celebrated modern Star Trek episodes, Ephraim and Dot - a journey through time, history, and memory in a beloved franchise. Here, he brings that same instinct for weaving mythology into narrative, but this time the epic voyage belongs to his grandmother. Her life, flaws and all, becomes the story of survival, reinvention, and myth-making that families carry forward. Lee Hutchison 4.5/5 Drinking with Grandma Venue: Mint Studio at Greenside @ George Street Dates: August 20-23rd Time: 2210 Tickets: www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/drinking-with-grandma |
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