Forgive me Grandma, For I Have Sinned, written and performed by Stephanie Wilson, and directed by David Meneses, is an autobiographical one-woman show. Wilson is an author, actor, speaker, and director, and as her website says, Stephanie Wilson believes storytelling can save lives. That belief is at the core of this show. A successful solo show needs to clearly tell you why you should care. As promised in her press materials, Wilson does this.
Wilson’s story spans her lifetime, beginning in childhood when she lived in an apartment in Orlando with her mother and her sister who required a great deal of care and had dreams of excelling at figure skating. Her grandparents helped raise and nurture her. It was her relationships with them that gave Wilson her purpose. She was her grandmother’s tesoro della nonna (grandma’s treasure) and their love is a theme throughout the show that crops up when Wilson needs courage or comfort.
The use of multimedia helps chart the character’s development. At first, the photos and videos read like a slideshow that a proud parent would show at their child’s graduation or wedding – endearing, a little cringey, and proud, and I think that’s what Wilson intended because she has every reason to fondly reminisce and be proud. The multimedia also provides comic relief to difficult moments with Wilson’s absentee father. That levity helps the audience empathize with Wilson. This isn’t an indulgent tell-all type of solo show, but one in which the artist makes sure to bring the audience along on her emotional journey.
As many young people do, Wilson departs from her childhood dreams to pursue a more practical path. She gets an MBA and builds a successful career and then her dream home. The StephTalk she gives is a hilarious and pointed view of the hustle culture that Wilson had sold herself and others on. It’s unclear whether she actually gave presentations like this or if she’s satirizing her career in finance, but either way, we see an accomplished woman who’s deliberately living an inauthentic life in the name of winning the game of capitalism.
Wilson’s business persona crumbles after the violent burglary of her home and subsequent death of a dear loved one. She is shaken to her core and left feeling that she’s lost her life’s purpose along with her safe places. In this middle part of the show, Wilson reluctantly goes to therapy to address her losses and the emptiness she’s feeling. Her therapist appears on screen and Wilson deftly navigates her side of the prerecorded sessions in a way that makes them feel like a live Zoom. The therapy was undoubtedly compressed for the show, but there was enough to show Wilson’s therapeutic journey. When the therapist gives her a four-step plan for moving forward with her life, it feels like she’s earned the knowledge through some difficult soul-searching.
That’s not where the soul-searching ends, though. Wilson decides to embark on a 115-day cruise around the world and spends a year trying to raise the funds to do so. There are more downs than ups in that year, and we’re not sure she’s going to make it on the trip. Just as the clock is about to run out, Wilson pops up on screen in a video from about ten years ago, sharing the news that she has sold her dream house and successfully financed the trip – the very morning she is set to leave. Wilson is only partly recognizable in the video. The pluck and optimism we’ve seen from her on stage are there, but there’s a great deal of uncertainty.
Wilson covers a lot of ground in “Forgive Me, Grandma.” Where autobiographical shows can be meandering and self-indulgent, Wilson uses the throughline of her grandparents’ love and multimedia to cleverly mete out the story’s main points like a treasure hunt. She hangs her story on this structure and brings the audience along with genuine responses to the comic, tragic, and unexpected events that unfold. Wilson ends the show with a photo montage from her travels. On screen and in her narration, she comes alive with great depth of feeling and feels very present. It’s an ingenious way of showing her transformation and bringing the show to its final point: Storytelling can save lives. It has clearly saved Wilson’s, and she wants to share that gift with her audience because she knows how common – and difficult – it is to feel like one’s narrative has stalled and to want more.
"Forgive me Grandma, For I Have Sinned"
Written and performed by Stephanie Wilson
Directed by David Meneses
October 12, November 1, November 16, 2024
United Solo Festival, Theatre Row, NYC
The 17th United Solo Festival
September 24 – November 17, 2024
Theatre Row
410 West 42nd (btw 9th and 10th Avenue)
STEPHANIE EAGAN is a professional writer based in NJ. A fan of every type of live performance imaginable, from taiko drumming to political performance art, she travels the tri-state area and beyond in search of music, art, theater, and excellent coffee.
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