Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Gimme A Sign!
Bailey Swilley
Genre: Comedy, Storytelling, Theatre
Venue: Greenside
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
GIMME A SIGN! is an autobiographical comedy written and performed by Swilley, based on a family tragedy and the strange but funny antics that ensued after. The solo show combines standup and storytelling and explores the stages of grief and the search for signs from above.
Review
Swilley welcomes the audience into the theatre, and encourages us to ” take a seat” wherever we like.
Her friendly, engaging, welcoming demeanour immediately makes us feel at ease. Not long afterwards we begin to hear a Britney song. This brought a sense of nostalgia but it also set a time frame for the audience in terms of when the performance was set.
Swilley takes us on a journey of very amusing elements of her life with serious, darker undertones including racism and the desire to impress her parents – her father in particular. We warm to her, it’s very fast paced and high energy. She also evokes a sense of nostalgia again within us – we can all remember a desperation to please a family member. The way in which she handles more challenging topics – including racism at the hands of her drama teacher and having a grandparent with a mental health condition provide a perfect balance of humour and sadness while leaving us with questions.
Swilley uses projection for the piece, and has a controller in her hand. The timing is very precise, and occasionally there are humorous slides which generate laughter. Swilley has full control of the technology, and it is clear that this is a very polished performance. Swilley is also obviously very confident both on the stage and with the material, which enables her to adapt to the audience.
The performance is divided into acts – a slide informs you of this, and Swilley takes a few seconds pause – drinking water / disengaging to make this clear. Although the first act was very funny, there was a part of us that wondered what would come next – there was a risk of the performance lagging. However, that wasn’t what happened. Swilley continued in the same engaging manner, regularly making eye contact with the audience, regularly bending down to alter levels, at one point running from one side of the stage to the other maintaining pace and our attention.
The topic altered – it became significantly darker with a family tragedy. However, despite the obvious sadness of the situation, Swilley successfully shares the sadness while adding much needed humour into the situation. She keeps us engaged, we feel empathy for her situation and she endears herself to us. This is done by a combination of a strong concise script, the speed of her delivery – she adapts it regularly to ensure we are engaged and she regularly makes eye contact. She has a warmth to the tone of her voice and we can feel the emotion of what she is sharing.
Swilley’s performance is a rare gift. It draws the audience’s attention to important topics including racism, mental health conditions, bereavement, relationship breakdowns and realisations about love. However she doesn’t “labour” the points – she supports us to form our own views and leaves us with questions and considering alternatives to what we think. She gives a masterclass in finding the balance between comedy and sadness. She also turns the concept of bereavement on its head – the performance is in fact a celebration of life and survival. Swilley is to be commended for challenging such deep, controversial topics and doing so with such humour. The audience left with huge smiles on our faces, and had been laughing throughout. She gave all of the audience a sticker to remember the performance by, which was a much appreciated memento and she gave some of us a humorous bracelet which made us smile.
