Sandy Grierson will also skip, strip and teach you how to make an origami boat. All this while he tries to convince you that everything he is saying is absolutely true.The main subject of this unusual show is Grierson’s great grandfather, Arthur Cravan, and their first meeting under astonishing circumstances in March last year. If we are to believe Grierson, Cravan is a poet, art critic, sailor of the Pacific, crook, rake, deserter and nephew of Oscar Wilde. Throughout the show, while nipping in and out of his great-grandfather’s life story, Grierson finds subtle and not-so-subtle ways to involve the audience in his quirky storytelling – be it by running his presentation slides for him, boxing with him on stage or pretending to speak French. All the while, he repeatedly reminds us that every single word of his is true – and it really is hard not to believe him, after all he even has YouTube videos to prove it.Written by Grierson with director Lorne Campbell, the show is extremely amusing and unusual. However, as it progresses it does feel like there is too much going on and that a central point is missing. Towards the end, after Grierson strips and after does some boogie onstage, runs across the across the lecture hall and jumps on tables through the audience, the show stopped making sense altogether – I just could not see how it fitted into the storyline. And the expressions on faces around me were saying the same. In conclusion, although quirky and amusing, it feels like the show could do with more work on pulling the core content together. It may not be everybody’s cup of tea even then.
