​From Star Trek to the Stage: Anthony Maranville Comes Full Circle with Drinking With Grandma

Drinking With Grandma is a darkly comic solo debut from former Star Trek writer Anthony
Maranville. The one-person show explores memory, myth, and the messy tangle of family truths -
all set against the backdrop of his grandmother’s funeral, where nobody shows up except him.

It’s an unlikely setup from someone more used to scripting space operas than baring his soul on
stage. But for Maranville, the Edinburgh Fringe isn’t just a festival - it’s a return. “When I was in
university, I came here with a short film during the festival,” he says. “It was such a powerful
experience. I always wanted to come back.”

This time, he’s returning with a show that is equal parts hilarious, chaotic, and unexpectedly
moving. Drinking With Grandma is built on the true story of a grandmother who turned her
grandson into a drinking buddy at age nine, claimed psychic powers at the slot machines, and
maintained a lifelong habit of extravagant lies - all of which she carefully recorded in her
mysterious “Book of Secrets”. When Maranville rediscovers the book after her death, the lies start
to unravel, and what follows is a strange, heartfelt excavation of the fictions that shape a family
and a self.

“It started with me just telling funny stories,” Maranville explains. “My grandma was larger than
life. People laughed when I talked about her. But I hit a point where I thought—there’s no real
story here. So I went looking for one. What I found was… me.”

“My grandma was like a trailer-trash version of Tim Burton’s film Big Fish,” Maranville says,
laughing. “She lied about everything, all the time. She created this mythology around herself—so
much so that I still don’t know what’s real. The show became my attempt to untangle all that. Her
lies shaped who I became. Including why I wanted to write for Star Trek in the first place.”

It’s not a stretch to say Star Trek saved Maranville’s life. It’s part of the show. “I talk about how I
used sci-fi and Star Trek to process trauma. It became this alien persona I invented to survive. I
didn’t even realise I was doing it.” Maranville would go on to spend four years working inside the
Star Trek universe, co-writing fan-favourite episodes like Ephraim and Dot for Short Treks, The Red
Angel for Discovery, and working on Star Trek: Picard. But beneath the grandeur of starships and
alien diplomacy, he now recognises something deeply personal: “That work was rooted in the
stories I’d inherited. Even the wild ones. Especially the wild ones.”

Reflecting on his time writing for Star Trek: Discovery, Maranville describes the early development
process as a dream for a lifelong fan. “That was my favourite part - when you’re just staring at a
blank slate with endless possibilities,” he says. Hired by Hannibal and Pushing Daisies creator
Bryan Fuller, Maranville found himself in a room with legendary Trek writers like Nicholas Meyer
and Joe Menosky. “Bryan had these amazing ideas about the new Klingons. Joe literally carries a
business card that says he’s ‘The Star Trek Guy’. His mind just works in ways I couldn’t believe. I
was always a little shy around them, but I had to keep reminding myself: I’m at the table. I have to
speak.”

Returning to the stage after years behind the camera also felt like closing a loop. “I started out as a
performer,” he admits, “but I quickly switched to writing and directing. This time, I had to do the
thing I’ve always asked actors to do and put myself out there. And it’s terrifying. But it also had to
be me. No one else could tell this story.”

Maranville found himself looking to a lineage of powerful solo storytellers for inspiration. “I started
doing research,” he says, “and there are a lot of monologists and solo performers who’ve had a
huge impact—Spalding Gray, most recently Baby Reindeer, and of course Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-
Bridge. All those people are in my head.” While staying true to his own voice, he carefully studied
what made their work resonate. “I’ve been seeing what they did, what worked, and trying to get
the smallest part of that into my work.”

Preview audiences have already responded with emotion. “People told me they saw their own
families in it,” Maranville says, a little stunned. “It’s funny, but it’s cathartic too. We’ve all inherited
some chaos.”

The show arrives at a moment where many artists are turning away from algorithms and
automation and searching for connection. For Maranville, Drinking With Grandma is also a protest
of sorts against the rising tide of AI-generated art. “I had this gut reaction to the flood of AI slop,”
he says. “I wanted to make something real. Something human. Just me, in a room, telling a story
face-to-face.”

That traditional Fringe experience of a single person, a raw story, a shared space is something
Maranville holds dear. “I’m romantic about the Fringe,” he says. “It’s one of the last places where
anyone with an idea and a little money can just show up and speak. I wanted to honour that.”
And he’s not doing it lightly. As a writer with “an encyclopaedic knowledge of Star Trek” (his
colleagues’ words, not his), Maranville knows what it means to build strange new worlds, but
Drinking With Grandma might just be the most intricate one yet because it’s his own. “This is the
most personal thing I’ve ever written,” he says. “It has my tone. My voice. My dark comic
sensibility. I’m proud of the work I’ve done in TV, but this… this is all me.”

Drinking With Grandma
Written and performed by Anthony Maranville
Venue: Mint Studio at Greenside @ George Street
Dates: 18-23rd of August
Time: 2210
Tickets: Drinking With Grandma | Edinburgh Festival Fringe