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Not so grand larceny
"Sure of This One" is built around an intense story about an armed robbery but gets sidetracked in a confusion of seeming irrelevancies.
By JOSHUA TANZER
Offoffoff.com
"Sure of This One" is a one-man show in the shape of a bowtie
— tight and gripping in the middle but loose and puffy at the
ends.
The idea for Michael McCauley's show started when he was robbed at
gunpoint while working in a lower Manhattan restaurant. He describes the
event second-by-second, he goes through it again to describe his thoughts
as it happened, and again to recount it for the police, and again to
expose the raw emotions that the experience brought out. This telling and
retelling may sound repetitive, but it isn't — each time McCauley
burrows deeper into the experience he uncovers new layers of feeling. It's the
most rewarding part of the show.
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| SURE OF THIS ONE | Written and performed by: Michael McCauley.
Directed by: Charles Gale.
Related links: Official site |
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But before and after the robbery segment of the show is a confusion of
seemingly unrelated bits about relationships, family, love, Ireland, drinking,
growing up, whatever. Some of these items are funny or touching, but it's hard
to see how they have anything to do with the robbery story. And an unfortunate
aspect of MacCauley's style is to clutter his storytelling with so many asides
that whatever is authentic in his tale is nearly buried under his need to keep
things fast and snappy. Many of these asides involve irrelevant quotations from movies
and popular songs that trivialize the truth of what he has to say, like stuffing
a steak with Froot Loops.
It's too bad, because there's the heart of a truly moving show in "Sure of This
One," but it's held down by the confusion surrounding it.
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MARCH 12, 2000
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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