When Showing Up Changes Everything
Sally Brooks shares how one unexpected act of kindness changed her life, leading her through grief, connection and the surprising ways we show up for each other. Her show STAY explores the moments of laughter, love and humanity that can exist alongside loss.
What happens when one small act of kindness draws you into a life you never expected?
In STAY, actor and writer Sally Brooks tells the darkly funny true story of how one small act of kindness for a child she barely knew pulled her into grief, responsibility and a life she could never have anticipated.
Brooks had built a life around independence, order and a go-bag by the door. Then loss changed the rules. Suddenly, she was showing up for people whose pain she could not fix, while navigating the unexpected relationships growing around it.
Although STAY begins in the aftermath of profound loss, it is not a sombre evening about grief. It is a funny, moving and deeply human story about what happens around grief: the awkward attempts to help, the mistakes people make, the laughter that arrives at inappropriate moments and the surprising ways love can take root in the middle of devastation.
At the heart of the show is a question many people will recognize: How do we show up for someone when there is nothing we can do to make things better?
STAY explores what it means to remain present when there are no easy answers, and how one unexpected choice can unsettle everything we thought we knew about the life we wanted.
Audiences can expect to laugh, be moved and perhaps leave a little more open to the unexpected ways connection can find us.
STAY is written and performed by Sally Brooks and directed by Padraic Lillis. It plays at Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose during the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Performance details: August 5 to August 30 15:00
Book tickets:https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/stay
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