Brighton Fringe

28^th May – 27^th June, 2021

In a picture perfect way this showing of ‘Heads or tails’ written and performed by Skye Hallam was full of quiet moments that she shared in her delivery of her own after life proposition. It was for the Brighton Fringe 2021 an inescapable torrent of maybe the end not being quiet the suffering that we are led to believe.

She threw open the doors in a solo act by coming to us as a ghost who had died 3 years ago. From this positioning she whispered with a quality of stand up with a script. In a quiet unique way she bent the views we have and made instead quite an excellent picture of the afterlife where as she died she said goodbye to her earthly character as a person.

It was like watching a genuine interview with a ghost who it turned out was still on a waiting list after three years for some kind of furtherance. She used many theatrical nuances to complete the act including the ghost theme and also the voice on a tannoy announcing an hour’s deadline for her special return to earth where she could enlighten us about dead things.

In her meticulous side she carved up the dialogues into sections giving each a title such as for the 1^st one ‘Death becomes us’ and in the last ‘Reasons to be fearful’ she elaborated about our lives and compared that to her own experience which was short as she passed at 25.

She spoke of the many freedoms of not inhabiting a body after it has already been experienced. But wisely spoke about fear in particular. Always keeping it up beat and lyrical but going through her own memories she realised things that she missed of this life after all.

She chose to express her joys in famous people she had loved and enjoyed, mentioning Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley with reverence and happiness. Her role as a ghost who delivered a dialogue had no qualms about its content as she went very close to the bone having a conversation with herself as well as us.

She put her feet up and chewed on some earth food she hadn’t had for a long time. We felt we were chilling out with her and found ourselves very interested in what she had to say. And cleverly she whispered uncomfortably in some of her moments as comedian. Then went on to list the great many harms in life such as children who have cancer and Donald Trump’s actions as American president.

Where she always left off was from the perspective of a wearisome validation of the experience of being dead for 3 years. She was relaxed and offered chilled answers in how to take these things and maybe not let them grow into unmanageable amounts. She was right to focus on fear, choosing it as an all encompassing experience that usually only result in loss of one kind or another.

She was interesting to watch being a writer and performer and her theatrical ideas were well swept and inventive. Giving us the relaxation of wiser things as she lay on the floor, gave us a big and different look in her eyes and after all as the countdown was close to 0 she simply said thank you for everything and passed onto the next journey we are all being led to. Colourful, fresh, exuberant and

informative Skye’s act leaves you with a lighter heart and a less jealous mind.

Daniel Donnelly